SLEEP?!?!?!?

Okay, so my goal over the past couple of weeks has been to get DJ to sleep better. I got a book recommended by Kristy, and I read it, and I began to implement those ideas, which were basically to let him cry. Prior to this, I hadn't been allowing him for even up to a minute. After thirty seconds or so I would give up and rush to his aid. This book suggested that I just let him cry until he falls asleep and don't go to him for up to an hour at nap times and allow him to cry indefinitely at bed time. Well, I couldn't do that, but I did let him cry longer. The first day I tried doing this he cried for about 20 minutes. I went in every 5 minutes or so to return his pacifier to his mouth in hopes that he would just relax and go to sleep. It seems that He will never go to sleep after just crying, but after crying for a little while and then having the pacifier stuck in his mouth, he will go right to sleep. I just have a hard time knowing exactly how long a little while is. Anyways, those first few days he continued to do better and better, until I could put him in his bed and he would cry for maybe 20 seconds, then he would be asleep. It was wonderful. He was taking three good naps during the day, and then sleeping really well at night, waking up only to eat, and then going right back to sleep.

And then... He lost his voice from crying so much. It was the saddest most pitiful sound I have ever heard in my life. So for a couple of days after that I was trying to avoid letting him cry very much so that his throat could feel better. I also ran a humidifier, which I should have been doing all along, but I hadn't been. Well now that he is feeling better I tried to get him to go to sleep again like he had been doing before. But it's not working this time around. Yesterday he fought sleep for seven hours before he finally went to sleep. He took two fifteen minute naps in seven hours. It was miserable. I was trying to get him to go to sleep. I let him cry for half an hour straight. I even tried nursing him to sleep. He would fall asleep and then he would wake up the second I laid him down and he would not go back to sleep. I know that he needs more sleep than that.

Last night after yesterday's fiasco I was hoping that he would just be so tired that he would sleep well, but after losing so much sleep, he was too exhausted to rest well. So he was waking up every hour to two hours claiming to be hungry. I tried not to feed him that often, but he just would not go back to sleep. So I gave up and fed him. He used to do this a month or more ago, but the past few weeks he had been doing so much better. It was good. I was only getting up with him once or twice during the night depending on what time he went to sleep, and I was getting the sleep that I needed.

This morning he went down for his nap really well. I hope this continues throughout the day, but if today is anything like yesterday, I don't know what I'm going to do.