I’m in a rush and will respond to commentors later, but I realized that me saying that my bedtime strategy has been “whatever” works has come across as not having a routine, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. I just meant that the end part of the routine has changed as Jamie’s needs have changed. I used to nurse him to sleep, then we weaned. Then I rocked him to sleep. That stopped working so then I laid down with him, etc. The routine however is rock solid and doesn’t vary.
Also, we went through a brief but blessed period back in February/March when he did go to sleep on his own, and that was facilitated by me getting fed up with his flopping around and pushing my buttons and just walking out of the room one night. He protested, I waited him out, he fell asleep.
This has been a slightly different situation, and we had some success last night with some new strategies. He was asleep 45 minutes after the lights went out with no fighting – a huge improvement.
More later!
