all by himself

This little guy of mine has been sleeping by himself for the past 6 days. Horray to mommy! When I first try it, I did't expect him to sleep all by himself on that first day. My plan was to leave him in his crib for not more than 1 hour, then I would rock him to sleep, as usual. But after almost 1 hour, he showed sign of (almost) sleeping, so I gave him a little bit more time and.... voila!! Caden slept by himself!!! *at lasttt!!* [It was June 10th]

Sleeping by himself is not easy for Caden who has been rocked to sleep the whole time. In his crib, he would toss and turn here and there; from the one part of the crib to the other end then sitting down, standing up once in a while, play with his soft toys, until he felt he is ready – that’s when he would lie down and play with his mut-mut and try to sleep by closing his eyes once in a while. When it gets to this part, it took him about 15 minutes to sleep. The longest time would be the-getting-ready part; it could take up to 30-50 minutes alone.

My job and suster’s are to accompany him, next to his crib but NOT playing or encourage him to play. Rather sometimes when he was standing up or sitting down, we would tell him to lie down and sleep – although almost all the time (if he thinks he is not ready yet) he would turned into crawling position (right away!) and continue what he was doing before.

Unfortunately, he would not still be able to sleep by himself for his nap time. (I am not sure why!). After about half an hour in his crib, he would cry so loud and tears would flow down his eyes -- begging me to carry him out. His eyes were closed because he was so tired but still he wasn't able to sleep. When I carried him, he would stop crying and sleep right away.

For now, I am happy that he is able to sleep at night alone. I believe I need to teach him gradually. So we still rock him to sleep in the afternoon but not at night. I hope he would be able to sleep alone for his nap time soon! Can’t wait!