sleep training news

Well, right after we got Zach sleeping, he got really sick. David left town Friday morning and Zach seemed to have allergies. We recently had him allergy tested and we are doing all kinds of things to keep him feeling ok. He is allergic to everything they test for at this age - dust, trees, dander. He can get tested more extensively once he turns 4. Anyway, by the time he woke up from his nap, he was miserable and I took him to the doctor. He had strep...for the third time this year! I started his antibiotics that night and by morning, he was struggling to breathe. Asthma attack. He was crying and saying he can't breathe and wheezing really bad. Back to the doctor. He had to do breathing treatments every 3 hours. I even woke him up at night to do them. It has been 10 days now and he is finally down to 2 treatments a day. With all that said...

Sleep training got majorly interrupted! His medicine makes him wired and not sleep good and he has had some bad dreams lately. I did what I could while David was gone and by this weekend, we were worn out again with the whole not sleeping thing.

They stay in bed technique wasn't the best option anymore because Zach was genuinely scared to go to bed and too hyped up on meds to soothe himself. We needed a new video monitor for when the baby comes and decided to go ahead and get one. We went to babies r us and got one that can have up to 4 cameras connected to it and has a feature where you can communicate through the monitor. Zach picked out 2 new toys and we put them on top of his bookcase as incentive to sleep through the night. We also put a lock on his door so he can't come out of his room.

We played with the monitor with him and showed him how we can watch him when he is sleeping and talk to him - I think this helped soothe his fears a little. We talked and talked and talked about sleeping all night to get his new toys. We put him to bed and he cried, got out of bed, hit his door, and then we talked to him on the monitor. He asked if we were going to wake him up in the morning and if he would get his toys. We said yes, told him goodnight and I love you and he climbed into bed and went to sleep. He slept until 5! At 5, I told him on the monitor, it's not morning yet, go back to sleep. He did! Until 6! Success! Last night he went to bed late at 9 and slept until 5. At 5 I heard him sorta cry for a second so I looked at the monitor and he had gotten up, turned on his night light, gotten back into bed, said mommy a few times, and went to sleep until 7!! What?! 7?! We are still in shock.

So, for now, this is what's working for us. And speaking of sleep, here's a great bed head picture :)



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