And we have a self-soother!

As you know, I have to train Nathan so that he can fall asleep on his own and not in our arms. After a week, I think we have success!

He's a drooler. Just like his mommy.

I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I'm thinking it was the combination of the following:

1. No more bed sharing and having him only sleep in his pack and play.
2. Teaching him that he can fall asleep on his own using the white noise machine for a week.
3. Letting him cry it out, with a pacifier while returning to comfort him every 5 minutes. But not pick him up. And I only did this yesterday afternoon. He fell asleep after about 30 minutes of crying on and off.

Last night, Steve put him down drowsy. I was about 10 feet away, and reading in bed. He stirred a bit, but slowly, and quietly fell asleep on his own. I couldn't believe it. I actually got up to check if he was breathing.  Today when I put him down for his first nap, he also stirred and fussed for a few seconds, but then quietly soothed himself to sleep. No white noise machine, no pacifier. I was also reading in bed a few feet away. I'm not sure if my proximity made a difference in this process so, for the next nap, I will read again in bed, but periodically go out of the room and tomorrow, I will try to not be in the room as he falls asleep.

I also got 8 hours of sleep for the first time in over 2 months. Even though it wasn't consecutive, I am happy to have gotten that much sleep at night. This is how it happened. I hopped in bed at around 9:45 to read while Steve walked Nathan around for about 10 minutes. When he got drowsy, Steve put Nathan down in his pack and play. Steve left and took a shower. During his shower, Nathan was a bit squirmy, and whined quietly, but never really started to cry. Occasionally, he would get really quiet. When Steve was finished with his shower, he went to the office to surf the net. No noise coming from the Nate. I crept closer to him and he was asleep! This was about 10:15. I stayed awake to read until about 10:30. Steve joined me in bed and lights out for the night. 10 minutes til 3:00, I woke up and Nathan started to stirr. I waited a bit until he started to whimper more and I ended up picking him up at 3:00 for a feeding. I fed him, changed him and we were off to sleep by 4:00. 3 and a half hours later, Nathan woke up at 7:30 and I woke up refreshed with 8+ hours of sleep. I hope this trend continues.