"My Sleep Secret" or "My Guilty Pleasure"

Roger has, for the most part, been a great sleeper. We had some issues in his first couple weeks of life, but who could blame the guy? The world was a big, scary new place, and he certainly did not want to be left alone in his big lonely crib all night. When he was 3 months old was when we finally got him to start sleeping in the crib again, and he has since slept about 11 hours a night with no problems (well, mostly no problems. There have been a couple sleepless nights...).

Recently, in the last few weeks, our little superstar sleeper has started waking up around 10 and refusing to go back to sleep (and in one instance, he actually stayed awake until 10. His usual bed time is 8). I couldn't pinpoint the cause of this; he doesn't wake up fussing and screaming. He just wakes up and starts talking very loudly. We usually just ignore him and a couple times this has worked: he'll talk it out for a while and simply fall back asleep. More often than not, however, he'll get more and more persistent until it IS crying and not just talking.

I'm not a big proponent of the Ferber method. My husband and I disagree about what qualifies as "crying it out," and he also possesses the uncanny ability to completely sleep through Roger crying. There have been a few mornings where he'll wake up bragging about what a great night sleep he got, when I'm disheveled from soothing Roger all night and completely mystified how he simply did NOT hear the baby drama that transpired (okay, he's not really bragging, per se, but it certainly feels like it to me).

So lately our little munchkin has been waking up at around 10 or thereabouts. Matt and I have spent our fair share of time trying to remedy the situation: rocking in the rocking chair until it's rocked itself right into the wall, singing, bouncing, walking, producing our own white noise. All usually to no avail. If he persists in crying after we've exhausted all our "go back to sleep" methods, we'll simply let him come into the living room with us while we watch TV. He'll usually go back to sleep pretty quickly snuggled up with Matt on the couch. I've tried to avoid jumping right to the couch solution (which obviously works) simply because I don't want Roger to start expecting that if he wakes up fussing, it means he can come watch TV with us. As any mother knows, it can be exhausting to soothe a baby back to sleep and sometimes it's difficult not to simply jump to the easiest method - the one ruled out because it doesn't mesh with the directives you've set forth for yourself as parents.

One particularly exhausting night, after walking a marathon through our teensy little house, I put Roger back in the crib thinking he was out only to have his heartwrenching cry immediately sound as I slowly backed out of his nursery. This would be the point where Dr. Ferber would tell us to simply let him cry, but it breaks my heart to ignore Roger crying, even for a reason like not wanting to go to sleep. So I crawled into the crib with him. I saw it on "Raising Hope" and on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" and I'm not quite sure what possessed me to do it at that moment in time, but... I did. It seemed like a good idea. Roger immediately cuddled up with me and ZZZZZZZ. Just like that. I've avoided using this every night, but when all else fails, it seems a better option to me than letting him fall asleep in the living room with us. At least he's in his own bed, right?

Crawling into the crib with Roger has become a little bit of a guilty pleasure for me. Matt and I decided before Roger was even born that he wouldn't be sleeping in our bed with us, but no rules were ever set forth about us sleeping in HIS bed (and I only stay in there until I'm positive he's asleep). I love cuddling with my little man, and I kind of like climbing into the crib with him (it beats doing laps around the dining room table). The tricky part is getting OUT without disturbing him. I imagine if I were a gymnist, I could maneuver out with some cool somersault move, but alas, I am no gymnist. I'm still mastering the art of getting out carefully, BUT at least it hasn't woken him up yet!!