New Kid On The Blog

Ever since Dominic was born, I've read numerous articles about sleep issues. Sleep ... it is the number one problem faced by most parents. I've had my share of sleepless nights too. Well, not exactly sleepless nights, but it would be great if Dominic could just fall asleep whenever he was sleepy and stay asleep the whole night without so much as a whimper.

My problem was that Dominic would not fall asleep on his own. He needed to be cuddled and rocked. Sometimes when I was luckly, he would fall asleep on his own, but rarely. And he often woke up at 4-5am. Although he would play quietly in his cot but after he'd done playing and wanted to go back to sleep, he would cry for me. The most inconvenient thing was when we were out. When he got sleepy, he wouldn't stay in his stroller. He needed SM or me to cuddle until he fell asleep. This is my problem ... or rather problems.

Experts say that we must train baby to soothe himself to sleep, i.e. we must put baby down in his cot while he is still awake. I've read this soooo many times. And yet, I did not do anything until now. Well, I did try once when I was living with SM's parents. As predicted, Dominic cried when I put him down. Experts said that I mustn't pick him up. Instead, I should comfort him with my voice, my touch. And if that didn't work, baby will almost always cry himslef to sleep. And so I let Dominic cry it out. In less than 5 minutes, SM's mum was knocking on my door and asked me what was wrong. I decided that I would not do it with her around.

About a week ago, I decided to try again. This time, there were nobody at home to interfere. On the first time, Dominic cried continuously for 45 minutes until finally he drifted off to sleep. As advised by the experts, I went in occasionally to reassure him, but my presence made him cry even louder. So I decided to just check on him by peeping into the room.

The second time, I left the room immediately after I put him down. He fell asleep on his own without a whimper. And ditto for the third time. I was euphoric, thinking that my plan had worked. But that night, he started crying again when I put him down. For the next 3 days, he went to sleep on his own throughout the day but it just didn't work at night. The first night, he cried for 30 mins; the second night for 15 mins; the third night for 30 mins; and finally on the fourth night, he fell asleep on his own without crying. He was good for two nights and then back to square one.

I'm still working on it and I do not understand why the method works like a charm during the day but not at night. Maybe he was afraid of the dark, so I turned on the lights. Maybe he wasn't sleepy yet, so I put him to bed later. I don't know ... it really stumps me. And I have no idea what I did right during the two nights when he was good.