Just laying there
To help reinforce the ability to fall asleep by himself, the next step is to stop carrying him around. Again, this also helps save a lot of energy.
It started pretty simply. Instead of putting him in the carrier and patting him. I just went to our bed, blocked off one side while I layed on the other and layed him next to me. Obviously, I didn’t expect him to fall right to sleep. I began by laying him on his stomach and patting his back to help soothe him. I tried to stop as he started moving towards sleep. Of course, he moved towards being awake shortly after I stopped.
He would try to actually pull himself up either to all fours or to a sitting position. Usually, just a little nudge was all it took to getting him lying back down. At that was the goal, really. I just wanted him to start falling asleep horizontally instead of vertically. This accomplishment alone should really help out with him falling back to sleep on his own.
I still patted him lots to help soothe him and move him towards sleep. For this reason, I found it important to keep him on his sides or his stomach. At this point, I’m not too worried about SIDS. First of all, I’m right there next to him watching him breathe and usually with my hand on him feeling it, too. Secondly, my son’s older and capable of moving himself if he needs to.
He continued to try to roll over and specifically liked to be on his back. Usually, if he managed to get on his back for more than a few seconds, he’d open his eyes and start moving back towards being awake. So, it was a constant struggle to keep him off of his back.
Now, I’ve actually tried this for a few naps and nights now. Sooner or later, he seemed to reach a point where he was too close to sleep to really pull himself back to being awake. At this point, it stopped mattering whether or not I patted him or that he was on his back.
Now, I simply hope to minimize how much I pat him and how long it takes. So, as far as I can tell, we’re moving towards learning to sleep on his own without making him cry until he just figures it out. And, since I’m slowly reducing our dependence on us, I feel like we’re not really harming our attachment process.
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