Genesis & Sleep training woes

Friends who have known me for a while must be going 'oh no, not another one of Cindy's blogs!' I've dabbled in fashion, wedding planning and now babies? (When I started Happify, Cal predicted I'll move into kids stuff once we graduate to the next phase of our lives. And we (he) know he's always right.) Well, I guess writing is therapeutic for me. Just like taking a bath or shower. Like looking at the rain with a cup of hot tea in your palms. (yes, I'm an introvert. Ask Myers-Briggs.) But time is a luxury these days, and any 'free' time I have is spent running errands (looking for baby stuff), catching winks (though hardly possible), or getting a hair cut (need to go to work looking less like a mad woman).

Genesis
But I digress. This was originally meant to keep a record of all the useful information (e.g. tips and theories), as well as Cayden's developmental milestones (which I have unfortunately added none, but luckily Cal has been religiously noting in his iPhone). I thought a blog would be convenient to sort by categories or chronologically when I need to refer to them again at #2. And I was recently inspired by Mommy May and Mommy Addie. I enjoy reading their posts, their journey, their thoughts, that I felt the urge to start writing (again).

Twinkle twinkle little star
Specifically, I was inspired by May's Sleep Doctor post. May and I attended a sleep training workshop which left us (and the other attendees) with heavy hearts. (Read all about what we learnt in May's post!) If you notice the labels on the right, 'Sleeping' has been tagged most. The past 9+ months, I have battled constantly with Cayden's sleeping and feeding problems. (More on feeding in a separate entry.) We have read countless of websites, forum discussions, books (kinda)...tried all means - pacifier (he belched), sarong (he thought it was a swing for playing), introduce comfort toy (he started eating it), co-sleeping (didn't work). Nothing could get Cayden to sleep other than nursing and/or rocking.

Colic
It started when he was 3+/4 weeks old. Every evening, he'd cry non-stop from 7-10pm. NOTHING could soothe him. We changed, I nursed, we carried, we rocked, we burped, we lullabied, we played (supposedly) soothing music. We gave gripe water/rid wind, tried ru yi oil, but nothing worked. For about 6-8 weeks, the least we could do was to carry and rock him until he cried himself to sleep. Mommy cried with him many times too.

A workout?
But that formed a habit. For me, I thought of it is as a workout (he was still about 4-5kg only). I had kilos to shed anyway, and I believed he'll outgrow the rocking at some point. At that time, 20-30mins of rocking him to sleep meant he could sleep through from 10pm-5am. Hmm pretty worth it I thought. Sleep training had never crossed my mind.

Sleep-deprived mommy is a grumpy wife
Then at about 16-18 weeks, he suddenly started waking up at night. At first it was every 4 hours, then every 3 hours, then every TWO hours.... I couldn't take it... I had already started work then, and was barely able to cope with changes in schedules, balancing mommyhood and work, but also lack of sleep?! Bedtime routine didn't seem to help. Since if coincided with me going back to work, I thought it could be because he needed more mommy-ness. So we started co-sleeping.

It didn't work either. I waited and waited for him to outgrow it. Each day goes by and I get wearier and wearier. Sleep depravation had been used as a means of torture for prisoners of war. I was Cayden's POW.

I ploughed the internet, consulted friends - 'let him cry la.' Really? 'Ya, we did it. It's painful for a few nights, but after that it's peace.' How many nights? 'Yours 6 months ah, maybe 5-7 nights?' We resisted CIO. He had cried enough during his colic episodes. We didn't want him to go through this kinda of emotional trauma again, and searched for 'cry-less' solutions. There was once I spent hours at Kino shelves flipping through sleep help books, hoping to buy a whole stack. Alas, every single one of them involved crying. I went home empty-handed that day.

Desparate
We carried on rocking him to sleep (no it's not a JUST workout anymore at 9kg), waking up every 2 hours with him, until I knew I was reaching my breaking point. I was desperate. I need to retain my sanity. I needed more help. That was when I stumbled upon the sleep training workshop. I asked May to join me cos she's tried CIO on Ewan too.

To be continued...
This post is getting too long and my eyes are glazing over... In the next post, I'll go straight to the point with the workshop review!

Night peeps