Here's What Happened

So, we started the sleep training thing one night, and it was pretty awful.

Tommy cried for an hour and a half before he fell asleep. 

[Yes, I did go in intermittently and check on him- 15 minutes has never gone so slowly!]

Remember, we don't want this: I'm awake! His eyes look so tired! :(

Overall the 1st night went just the way the book said, though. When I woke him to feed him (instead of letting him wake up on his own), he went right back down and slept till 6:30, with only one teeny peep around 3, for which I did go in and give him his pacifier (the book says not to- whatever). I was thinking, Hey! This might actually work!

But then we decided to put it on hold for another week. Here's why:

The 2nd night, he went down without crying at all! (Maybe I put him down too drowsy?) So when he woke in the middle of the night, way earlier than normal, not in teething pain and not hungry, (why are you doing this?? More below.) I didn't want to make him cry after he hadn't had to just prior. I was afraid he'd be confused and sad and angry. :( So I guess I chickened out.

But there are a few other reasons that kind of throw a wrench into the mix. He's got teeth that are super close to breaking through (or so I've been thinking for 2 weeks!) and I don't want him "crying it out" when he's in pain. Pain needs to be attended to!

Then, he's almost crawling. Supposedly, when a baby is close to hitting a new milestone, they have a harder time sleeping because they are "excited" to keep practicing it. This actually seems to be pretty true of Tommy, who rolls onto his belly and pushes himself up multiple times each night. And then gets frustrated because his habit is to push up, making it so he just wont/can't/doesn't sleep on his belly because he doesn't relax. Sigh.

I love to crawl around my crib!

And finally, my dad is going to stay here tonight, and will be sharing Tommy's room. Pretty sure having an extra person (who tends to snore like a freight train- love ya Dad!) in his room will distract Tommy and any hard work we would have already accomplished would just go down the drain.

I know that I'll be able to find reasons like this all the time. Babies are pretty much constantly teething and learning new milestones, and there's always going to be some random something that comes up to mess with things. So we decided to just wait till after my dad left, and then we'll start again, teeth and crawling regardless (unless when he cries I can tell it's from pain- and I wont be completely ignoring him anyway).

And it's SO TIME for this, because the last couple nights, he's been going down easily but waking up about 2-3 hours later, and not going back to sleep for at least two hours!!

He doesn't want food, he doesn't act like he's in pain- he's just wide awake. I think somehow he's convinced himself that bedtime (we've done the same routine since he was like 6 weeks old) is now another naptime. Sleep a little, then be awake again for a while! Then bedtime, around 12 or 1am. Which means he's usually waking up right after I fall asleep.

Ahh! How do I fix this!? 
Hopefully the sleep training thing will help, but what if it doesn't?
What if he cries the whole two hours?
I will literally lose my mind.

I'm trying to be optimistic, but sometimes it's hard. It really has been helpful to hear about others who have had trouble with this too, though; it's always good to know we're not alone.

Come on, Tommy, let's do this thing!