Sleeping through the night?

I bought this sleep training book called The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley in hopes of getting Rhys to sleep better because lately he was waking up every hour during the night and only taking measly 30 minute naps during the day. I was seriously going crazy and taking it out on Brian and also getting very frustrated at the baby, sometimes forcing my boob on him so he would just eat and go back to sleep..(which he did not appreciate). After about a couple weeks of constantly waking up every hour or so, I decided I needed a solution. I wasn't about to try the Cry-It-Out method so I found this book that claims you can get your baby to sleep better and longer without crying. I bought it, read it and really didn't find it that revolutionary what they were telling me to do. I really thought that it was going to be a step by step guide to help me, but it was more guidelines and various ideas that I could pick and choose from based on what kind of baby I had and what kind of method I used to get the baby to sleep normally. But in any case, I had to try something. So Monday night, I tried it out. I fed him, played with him in the dim room, had daddy play with him, came back into the dim room, put him down, pick him back up because he cried, nursed him again, put him down, picked him back up and rocked him, put him down, picked him back up and rocked him....I think I picked him up like 5 times. Every time I tried to lay him down, he would startle and cry and be angry. Finally after the 5th time, he was so tired that he went to sleep!!.....But only to sleep for 30 minutes and cry again. So I nursed him, rocked him and put him down and he went down again after a couple attempts, only to sleep for 45 minutes and then again later for 53 minutes. Needless to say, I was exhausted come 1 am...so I just picked up the little guy and moved back into bed and nursed him back to sleep and called it a night. He must have been tired because he slept for a 3 hour stretch after he came back into bed with me. Still, baby was cranky once morning came.

    I considered not doing the sleep training the following day, but I read a lot of positive reviews for keeping consistent and persistent with sleep training and that in the end, the baby and I would both sleep better. So I tried again to disassociate my boob with him falling asleep. I took the nipple out of his mouth when he looked like he wasn't sucking much to eat, but just to suck. I did as they told me and kept him mouth closed with my finger under his chin...and it worked! Although he slept for only 40 minutes, I was so happy that I got him to sleep after I took the boob away. 

   When the evening rolled around again, I decided we try this sleep training thing again. We fed him some carrots (he just started on solids last week) and I nursed him, burped him, held him, took him to daddy to play a little, looked around and said good night to the various things around the house, and then I took him into the room when he looked tired and put him down in the pack n play. He fussed and started to cry, so I picked him up, then I put him down and then picked him up again, and then put him down. I put a fuzzy blanket over him and then he started to fuss and pull the blanket over his face so I just watched him to make sure he didn't do anything dangerous. He started kicking both his feet up into the air and banged them down on the bed over and over, all the while he looks as if he is trying to smother himself or eat his blanket. I just kept an eye on him to see if his crying/fussing would get worse....but it didn't! He fussed with the blanket and his feet for about a couple minutes and then his fussing got slower and slower and finally, he stopped moving! His hands relaxed and he twitched a little, but it looked like he was actually drifting to sleep! It was aroud 9:15 pm. I made sure that the blanket wasn't covering his face and watched him....and watched him....and watched him. I was in my room watching Rhys and catching up on Downton Abbey until about 12:20 when Brian came in to sleep. He slept for 3 hours on his own! He fussed and shifted and kicked a few times during those 3 hours, but overall he was able to get himself back to sleep without much trouble. I was so shocked and delighted, but skeptical that it would happen again. Tonight is Thursday night, the 4th night of sleep training and he went down without much fuss. He was pretty tired though. I gave him 3.5 oz of breastmilk from a bottle, then rewarded him with my boob, and then I put him down in the pack n play and he just went down...no fuss! 

Here is a pic of him sleeping. 

The only difference with tonight is that he didn't get solids at dinner. It's my little experiment to see if it was the solids that helped him to sleep for 4 hours last night or if he is just maturing as a baby. 

Now, how to deal with him screaming his lungs out when I'm not around...hmmmm...I guess we'll have to deal with that when the time comes. I already feel bad for my mom...I better get her a nice gift.