the sleep train: part two

The sleep training continues to go fairly well. Other than what I'm hoping was a blip the last couple of nights, last night going a little better than Sunday night, Elias continues to take up to about a half-hour to fall asleep. He cries pretty hard for a few seconds when we first leave the room, but after that it's usually a combination of playing and mild fussing before things eventually get quiet. He's even gone to sleep with no tears a few times. Sunday night got off to a bad start (it was after 9 before Neal finally soothed Elias to sleep and once again, there was some vomit involved) but then Elias slept until about 7 yesterday morning. He's slept through the night every night since we got on this train a little over a week ago (by the way, in my still sleep-deprived state, I mistakenly wrote that all this started early Friday morning...it was actually early Sunday morning, not that it makes much difference). The morning nap has been going pretty well, but I'm still having a hard time getting Elias to take an afternoon nap. And it seems like we rarely get him to bed before about 8 every evening despite putting real effort toward an earlier bedtime. I think the difficulty has come from trying to have dinner and clean up the kitchen after Neal's done with work but before the bedtime ritual begins. Considering our bedtime routine takes about an hour, it's just too much to try to get done without keeping the kid up a little late, especially considering he rarely takes much of an afternoon nap. So I think we're going to start the bedtime routine shortly after Neal stops working and try to have dinner after, which may mean some late dinners but hopefully we can start getting Elias to bed closer to 7 or so.

That's where we stand on that. I do hope the crying, even though it hasn't been anywhere near as bad as I feared, ends completely at some point. And I worry about what sort of setbacks we'll experience following a trip, teething, illness, etc. (although it seems like everyone I know has experienced these kinds of setbacks, regardless of the particular sleep training method they've employed). But it does seem like Elias is sleeping better and longer than he has in months. I'm catching up, myself, although I find I'm still waking up a couple of times throughout the night.

In other news, this is the photo that's in the lead to enter the Beautiful Baby Contest. I'm a little surprised, actually. I mean, I like all the "finalists," but I guess I didn't think that one in particular would take the lead. There's still time to vote, if you haven't already (check out the poll to the right)! I'll reveal the photo we end up submitting later this week.