Your sleep training begins, young Jedi

Posted on | October 6, 2007 6 Comments | e-mail | print

So. Now that Mac is 4 months old, we are starting our version of sleep training. It entails starting him on a bedtime routine and getting him used to sleeping by himself in his crib. We did the same thing with Owen and it ended up working out pretty well, so we’re going to try it with Mac.

We give the boys a bath around 6:30. Then we dry them and dress them and we gather as a family on my and Iain’s bed. I nurse Mac as Owen and Iain take turns reading (or “reading”) three story books. Tonight, Mac fell asleep on the breast, which kind of made things easier.

I swaddle Mac while Iain tucks Owen into bed; then they sing a few improv’d songs (“Gray Guy and Bad Guy,” “Zoo Zoo Zoo,” et cetera) and have a last hug and kiss. I lay Mac in his crib and we leave.

Five minutes later Mac wakes up and I spend the next hour or two rocking him and laying him back in his crib and picking him up and nursing him and laying him back down in his crib and picking him up and rocking him again and laying him back in his crib. By 9 p.m. his wailing has turned to half-hearted fussing and blithering and I let him lie. After a few more minutes, he’s quiet and presumably asleep. Then I pop open a beer and wait for The Office to come on.

As with most parents of very young people, our day revolves around sleep. Just as a pregnant woman can drop and give you 20 physical complaints in 10 seconds, parents of totlets can give you a minute-by-minute account of the sleep they got last night. It’s the first thing out of our mouths when you say hello. But think about it: A good night’s sleep — for the kids OR us — can make or break the day. It’s the difference between sweet angels or bionic devils, between Regular MB and Commercial-Strength Bitch MB.

So the sleep, we like to have a lot of it. I don’t get a lot of it when there are kids in my bed, so teaching Mac to sleep on his own is important. But teaching him that Mom and Dad are only a few steps away, and that we respond to him when he needs us, is important to me too.

Now, if only someone could teach the people on our street not to honk after 10 p.m. or before 8 a.m. Doorbell, man. Doorbell. Learn to love it.

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