A couple months ago Ben and I paid a visit to my friend Irene and her son Isaac, who just turned 1. We arrived around Issac's nap time and I witnessed something that as a new mom completely amazed me.
Let me preface this by saying that at that time Ben and I were having Nap Issues. He didn't want to take them and I had no idea how to persuade him that, yes, he really did, lest his mother melt into a puddle of sleep deprivation and spit up stained clothes.
So when Irene took Isaac upstairs for his nap I was expecting to wait a while for her return. To my surprise, she was back downstairs within 2 minutes. Even more surprising was that I didn't hear any crying. It didn't take 45 minutes of rocking and singing to get him to precariously fall asleep in her lap, only to wake up if she made any small movement. I couldn't imagine a time when that would be my life. Having Ben take actual naps during which I was free to do whatever I wanted?! It was a pipe dream up there with wishing they'd put Weird Al songs on Rock Band.
Then we started sleep training in earnest. No more sleeping in bed with us. No more bassinet in our room. No more naps on Daddy's chest or Mommy's lap.
The first night he cried for an hour before falling asleep. He did better with naps during the day, but there was still some fussing. However, gradually he caught on and now we can (almost always) put him to bed or down for a nap with a minimum of protest. He's still not sleeping through the night because of that rolling problem I mentioned, but I'm now part of Irene's club. I can put Ben down for a nap and walk away. And then the world is my oyster... At least until he wakes up.
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