Sleep training :-(

Last summer Mason was sleeping GREAT! We would rock him to sleep, but he'd sleep 10-12 hours straight at night. Then labor day weekend he got sick. Then it was downhill from there thru the fall til he had his ear tubes put in and adnoids taken out late November. He had so many ear infections in there he'd wake up at night from pain, so the only way to get him back down was tylenol and a bottle. Sometimes it was several wakings at night. FINALLy we had relief after his surgery. THEN the bad teething started and sometimes he'd wake up so restless at 3 am- so the only solution was to let him cry for a few minutes which would wear him out enough, but he'd only go back to sleep IN our bed. (okay for Gavin, but NOT for me!)
So a few weeks ago, I decided I was tired of being tired all the time. ALL the time, I was complaining I was tired. Granted I am running after a 15 month old, but I should still have more energy after 8 hours sleep. Then I started thinking about my quality of sleep. I LOVE our bed, so comfy, but why don't I sleep good? Hmm, easy!
#1- dogs in the bedroom. Shelby would jump on the bed in the middle of the night several times and always have to touch me, so it'd wake me up. I go back to sleep easily, but it still wakes me up. Their nails clicking on the wood floors DRIVES me nutty and when they want to get up at 7 am (not me!) they start walking all over and it wakes me up AND mason. SO ENOUGH of that. Dogs OUT and the door is SHUT!
#2- Cats in the room! So for the few nights after the dogs being out of the bedroom- i let the cat stay in and sleep with us (okay really me, they could careless about sleeping with Gavin) Sanuk really doesnt care about sleeping in the room, its mainly Sabai. He sleeps in my right arm and will sleep there all night. So poor guy, he's been booted now too.
#3- Mason in our bed! for months he's been coming into our bed at 4 am. He snuggles up next to me which is sweet and I sleep fine because i LOVE cuddling with him, but its not my deep sleep I need. He moves around so much and kicks and flails around- so HE's BOOTED OUT!
So for the past week I've been SLEEPING WONDERFULLY and getting the quality sleep i DO need in my 8 hours, I've been feeling so much better and much more energized in the mornings.
Mason on the other hand- is doing okay. Not great- but not bad either. We started it friday night. He woke up at 1:30 am and we started the CIO (Cry it out). After 5 min, i went in, comforted him (not taking him out of the crib), went back after an additional 10 min, and again after another 15 minutes. In the end, he cried for an hour and 20 minutes. poor kid just didn't understand. What helped, was I gave him my tank top I was wearing. Its the soft t shirt he likes and it smells like me too. So that helped him go back to sleep. Woke up in his bed happy in the morning. (yeah!!!) Saturday night, Gavin (bad daddy!) took him OUT of the crib when he woke up at 2 am- changed his diaper, fed him a bottle and then put him back in his bed and he went to sleep on his own, no crying. (okay, thats great- but bad for taking him out!) I dont feed him a middle of hte night bottle anymore, and I'm trying to get Gavin to STOP!! Sunday night, Mason did great- never woke up. sounded like it a few times, but went back to sleep on his own every time. WOOHOO! Thats exactly what I want!! Last night, different story. He woke up around midnight- so we started the CIO. Gavin went in to comfort him after 10 minutes (after i told him to NOT take him out of the crib) and when I went in, WHERE was he??? OUT of the crib! ahhh!!! So since he screwed it up, I changed his diaper and then Gavin fed him a bottle IN his bed. (Ahhh! NO!) So we're making small steps on getting him to stay IN his bed. I know before long he'll be climbing OUT of his bed and we'll have to move onto a big boy bed, so I'm really trying to enforce the sleep training! Maybe the sleep training is more for Gavin! NEXT thing- cut OUT the bedtime bottle!