Sleep training and other recent events

When Liam turned 6 months old, I finally consented to beginning sleep training. Dan had been wanting to give it a try for a while now. The first nap sucked. I laid him down in the guest bed next to me and rubbed his back until he cried himself to sleep. It took about an hour. I was so upset about letting him cry that I wasn't able to get a nap while he slept.

That night, Dan put Liam to bed. Dan had an even harder time than I did and wasn't very consistent. Liam fell asleep after about 45 minutes, but continued to sniffle for over an hour after he had fallen asleep. That really broke my heart.

I did a little bit more research the next morning and came across the Ferber method. Routine is very important to establishing good sleep habits. I turn on the music on his sound machine, put Liam down in his crib, give him a burp cloth to cuddle with and rub his belly for a few seconds. If he cries, I return after 5 minutes to rub his belly or back and say "shhhhh." I leave the room within a minute. If he continues to cry, I come back after 10 minutes and repeat the process until he falls asleep.

I cannot believe how quickly Liam learned the process. I can put him down for a nap and he only fusses for a couple minutes. No more tears. He is also sleeping for longer at night. I've heard him stir, but he goes back to sleep without needing me. I still nurse him to sleep if nap time coincides with hunger. During the night, I feed him when he wakes up and he usually falls asleep in my arms. I change his diaper before putting him down, but he usually sleeps through it. If he does wake up, he goes right back to sleep when I put him down.

About 12 weeks old, sleeping on my lap. 

 In other news, Liam's diapers have been more prone to leaking lately and I realized that some of them were starting to repel. Part of routine cloth diaper care is "stripping" the diapers. After a rinse cycle to remove the waste, I added a squirt of original Dawn dish washing detergent to a hot wash cycle with no detergent. I did an extra wash cycle without detergent to make sure that all of the soap rinsed out. I haven't really had any problems since.

I also decided that I don't like the Imse Vimse flushable liners. They are really rough. After feeding Liam solid foods, his poo didn't change much. The diapers are still coming clean in the washing machine, so I'm going to stick with the old routine for now.