Sleep Training

 I have a lot of friends who talk about sleep training with regard to their kids.  They blog about such things as the "crying it out" method, patterns, sleep schedules, sleeping pills... Oh wait.  I think the sleeping pills must be their secret wish for the nights where the screaming just never stops.  One tiny little pill to make their precious little bundle of joy just be quiet and snooze long enough for them to regain their sanity and start a new day.  My friend, Emily, has blogged about, and read about, sleep training more than I think any other newer mother possibly could.  She amazes me.  Though, I should make it clear she's never blogged about wanting to give her adorable little man a sleeping pill...she's only blogged about her complete sleep deprivation and desire for him to sleep a whole night.  In one of her blogs she writes about the "crying it out" method, which is really exactly what the name implies.  However, with that comes concern about Erikson's theories of child development and a very crucial stage of trust vs. mistrust.  If you let your child cry, do they begin to think that you'll never be there when they need you?  Enough about child development theory...and real babies....on to what this post is really about:  Mo.

Yep, we're in need of some sleep training with the dog.  See, about a month ago or so, I told Crissy that if/when we got new bedding, I really didn't want Mo sleeping in the bed anymore.  (We'll disregard the fact that I was never a huge fan of it in the first place.)  At that time, we made a small effort to attempt to get him out of the bed.  However, it was small.  And, by small, I mean miniscule - and it lasted about two days - and, he never actually slept a night somewhere other than the bed.  Really, all we did was create an easier way for him to get in and out of bed.  Brilliant, huh?

As mentioned in the prior blog post, we got the bedding we were wanting from Crissy's grandparents for Christmas.  So, with our day off yesterday, we put it all on the bed and together.  It was lovely!  And, thus began the need for sleep training.  Our nap yesterday afternoon began with a nightmare of the loudest barking I've ever heard from Mo.  I mean, seriously, he hurt my ear drums with his barking.  Somehow he eventually fell asleep or went to chew on something...or something.  But, the sleep training resumed with bedtime last night.  Mo was actually okay in one of his two new options for a bed....right up until Crissy and I actually went to bed.  And, then the barking and whining resumed.  We took part in the "crying it out method" for a while and then I took pity on the fact Crissy had to work today.  So, I climbed out of bed and laid on the floor next to one of Mo's bed options.  He laid there for about a minute, then went back and forth between different places in the room, until he finally settled into the chair in our room.  So, I kneeled on the floor next to him and pet his face until he fell asleep.  There were a few steps after this which involved moving my hand and still making sure he was asleep, etc...before actually getting back into bed, but you get the idea.  Unfortunately, this had to happen again when he got up in the middle of the night.  To top it off, I felt like that new mom who had a hard time sleeping because she's listening for every little sound.  Well, I wasn't listening because I was worried about Mo....I didn't want Crissy to wake up!

We'll see how tonight goes - I'm hopeful that after another few nights, Mo will "sleep trained" to a new location in our room.  Here's what he has to choose from:

The really cozy chair in the corner of our room, near our bed

 

Or, a suitcase ala dog bed complete with pillow for a cushion, comforter we've been using and Mo's fleece blanket