zzzzz.....Sleep Deprivation

Two nights ago we probably had the worst night since we brought Ethan home. Chris was on night duty, because I had to work the next day and he was off. Even though he was technically the "night dutier", I still got ZERO sleep.  Ethan would wake up crying, Chris would pick him up, Ethan would calm, Chris would put him back down, Ethan would scream. This was the pattern all night long. Until about 3:30 when Chris fed him. Then he slept until about 6:30.  I think we let him get a nap in too late (7:00) and he was confused and was in nap mode all night long. Usually after 5:30 there are no more naps and bed time is 8:00, if not before, and we wake him up at 10:30 for his last bottle. Ethan sleeps in our room in a pack and play so when he is awake, we are usually both awake.

There are some days when I feel we are making absolutely no progress in the sleep department (for instance the night I spoke of above). I've read all these sleep training books and I've attempted some of the methods, but with what feels like no success. Cry it out was the first one I tried, needless to say that lasted one nap. Hated that method. I hated hearing Ethan scream for thirty minutes. It was pure torture. And the outcome was a nap for thirty minutes. SOOOO not worth it in my book. I did get lots of good info on his sleep cycles out of that book. Definitely shed some light on what Ethan was going through and what his body was doing. Recently I've read the no cry sleep solution book and I like some of the pointers it gives. But a lot of the pointers are aimed towards breast feeding mothers. I've kind of taken advice from all the books I've read and just made my own plan of attack. Currently when he starts rooting around I'll reinsert paci and pat his bottom a couple of times and say shhhh shhh and it pretty much works every time. Some days the patting is minimum, and others it feels like I'm patting him every three minutes. I'm hoping he grows out of this and I won't still be patting his bottom at the age of one. :) I know with time and once he gets his sleep cycles figured out it will get better, until then we'll just pat away.