I am more in fear of losing my iPhone than losing my wallet. Mostly because my wallet is so huge, there’s no way it would fall out without giving off a big thud.

We had many long sleepless nights before our ten month old son started sleeping through the night. So we cherish every minute now and are sometimes afraid of doing x-or-y thing for fear of ruining what we have wrought. So far we’ve had very good luck – an exhausting car trip that involved sleeping in two different places in two different cribs plus a couple of nights of being put to sleep in his car seat at dinner parties have not caused any regression trouble. I’m sure there will be more as he ages. . . So I guess I would advise – don’t worry too much about regressions, or about having to “sleep train” (or whatever) again. It might happen, but it might not, and no matter what your baby will be a different baby in four months or six or eight. But it’s my firm belief that sick babies should always be soothed – rocked, held, loved, (tylenol-ed), because waking up feeling bad is a terrible feeling, even for us big folks – and we can take Nyquil and they can’t. Re-training won’t be the end of the world if it’s required. Anyway, that’s my 2-cents.

I’m in agreement with Erin. I think when regressions come (and they will), just try the minimum interventions first, and scale up if needed. We’re in a very similar spot with my almost one year old, he’s just started sleeping through.

My daughter didn’t sleep through the night until she was 11 months old. We had to Feberize her to get her through the night. Bliss — to finally get to sleep through the night! Wouldn’t you know about 2 weeks later she got sick and was super congested. I didn’t want her crying and making it worse, so I did get up and feed her in the middle of the night. Since I was nursing, I doubt she got much since my body had already adjusted to the new schedule, but it did the trick for soothing. After she was healthy again we immediate re-trained her which only took about 1-2 nights with little intervention — no biggie. I think the trick is to quickly get back to the habits you want to encourage instead of getting into a rut. The next time she was sick she was totally weaned, so while we’d go in and sooth her or give her water to drink her food source was dry, so we bullied through it w/o feeding her. I don’t remember it being a big deal.

Thank God that baby is sleeping!! I would just do the minimum to soothe him as problems (sickness, teething) arise. It will become very clear to you when he is no longer sick, but still harassing you and then you’ll just have to CIO again but it probably won’t be anywhere near as severe in scale. I’d say, though, NO BOTTLE. Only what’s necessary – tylenol, some rocking, etc.

Excellent! First the bad news: there will be regressions because of teething/illness/assorted other crap, so you will have to do the sleep training thing again. Now the good news: it gets MUCH easier the second, third, fourth… times. The trick for us was realizing that we had regressed. I know that sounds stupid, but sometimes it took awhile for us to come around and realize “Wait! We are staying with him until he falls asleep again and he’s not sick anymore. Time to sleep train!” It’s self-reinforcing though – you know you’ve done it before, so you know you can do it again.

We just went through this – had the 10 mo old sleeping through the night and bam, the teething started again. It’s been two nights of on and off sleep, but we just go in and give her the orajel/tylenol/etc. and i’ve had to pull her out and rock her back to sleep once or twice. I definitely avoid re-introducing the bottle though – because that is a hard habit to break and according to our pediatrician, they just don’t need it at this point.

Yah on sleeping!!!! With our older child we would comfort him when he was sick at night and he would sometimes have a bit of sleep training relapse. The relapse usually only lasted a night or two. Our youngest child is a tough one when she is sick. Sometimes it is just better to let her fuss at night when she is sick. When I go in to comfort her she gets really pissed and sometimes does not go back to sleep the rest of the night. Guess you have to do a bit of trial and error. I think most kids revert back to good sleep habits if they have been doing well prior to getting sick.

Congratulations; I am so glad that things have been looking up on the sleep front. I don’t have any advice for you on the last part, but I hope that the sleeping just continues to get better!

Botox is DEFINITELY worth it. Naficy, seattleface.com in Bellevue, is running a special and you can get it for only $10/unit instead of the regular price, $15/unit. If you’re like me & need 20 units, that means you pay only $200 instead of $300 for a completely smooth brow.

Bummer about the lost wallet. Yeah for sleeping through the night.

As for comforting the baby when he is sick, by all means but don’t feed him unless he is truly hungry. I would give my boys very weak herbal tea. It was actually boiled leaves from the bitter orange tree in our yard, with a little bit of sugar. It’s an old fashioned Puerto Rican remedy and apparently it’s safe. Ask your pediatrician about mint, etc. Or maybe just plain water.

Good luck and don’t worry. You will be fine.

No easy answer regarding teething, illness – in my opinion. In my son’s case, if he hasn’t had enough to eat that day because he has been sick and is up crying I usually do give him bottle. But I do let him cry a bit even if he is sick…just to see if he really needs me then I go in. With teething on the really grumpy days, I medicate before bed with motrin and don’t give a bottle…but will go in after a bit if he is hysterical. You might have a night or two that is off after he is feeling better but I have found that re-training afterwards is not as bad as the initial training.

How the hell do you get on a plane without ID? What a nightmare!

Yay for you and Dylan and Sleep! I am currently in the midst of a regression from a nasty ear infection. I try doing intervals of increasing time for crying. So after he was feeling better on Sat night, I let him cry for maybe ten minutes and went in when he went from fussing to wailing. Then last night I tried to tough it out longer 15 minutes and again, I didn’t go in until he was all out crying. Tonight, I don’t know, I’m hoping he’ll just sleep. And the other thing I only give him a bit of nursing…maybe 5 minutes and then he’ll usually just go back to sleep.

When we’ve done this before it seems like it only takes a few nights after he is feeling better for him to get back to sleeping through. It seems like they’ve learned from earlier sleep training and so they adjust more quickly back to the routine.

Hooray for sleeping-through-the-nighting!

I don’t think comforting during illness/teething has to involve feeding. So unless he’s really upset and you know that ONLY a bottle will make him feel better, I’d stick with other methods (rocking, singing, patting etc. etc.).

Losing wallet = sucks ass. Shopping for new wallet = the bright side.

I would say that if he’s sick, definitely go in to comfort him, but no more bottle. Of course, I should just shut the hell up, because the last time I left a comment here with all of my great knowledge about getting a baby to sleep through the night, mine woke up a zillion times.

Oh the pity comforting. It’ll get you every time. What’s worked with starting by trying to comfort him without taking him out of the crib. If that doesn’t work, a limited amount of time rocking, but no bottle.

I’m so glad your boy is sleeping through! My son started sleeping 8 hours straight at 10 weeks, and by 12 weeks was sleeping 12 solid hours straight. I though I was so smart. Imagine, my baby sleeping all that time and I never had to cry it out!

Then the teething started. And the growth spurts. And OMG he’s 8.5 months old and still eats at least once at night, sometimes twice! We make progress and then he gets sick again and we’re back to being up every few hours. I’m hoping now that the weather is getting warmer and we can be outside that he’ll quit it with the runny nose and start sleeping better.

I hope your boy gets through his regressions more easily than mine. Best of luck!

If the kids are sick, regular sleep habits go out the window. I usually turn the monitor way up so I can hear them breathing or I sleep in the room with them. Once they’re on the mend we go back to the regular schedule. We’ve never had a problem getting back into the habit but we’ve also never had a terribly long illness to throw it off too much. Good luck!

Our son just began sleeping through the night around a year, when he weaned, and we’ve had several bouts of sickness (read: doing whatever the kid needs to help him feel better, INCLUDING a snack as a last resort) when I thought this newfound sleep victory was going to be right out the window. However, as soon as he was well, it only took a few crappy nights before he remembered the drill and was back to sleeping through. So don’t worry overmuch about it, I’d say.

We usually regress for a few nights, allowing for the comforting of the babe then going back to sooth yourself, baby – mama’s too tired from taking care of your sick to care. There is usually a day or two of fussing that requires minimal intervention, but it all goes back to normal soon after everyone is healthy.
But then you hit one of those godawful sleep-regression ages (18 months, 30 months, etc) and all hell breaks loose and you think the kid was just fucking with you by sleeping so well for all those months…guess what we’ve been dealing with lately?

If he’s teething dose him with Tylenol at bedtime. I always made sure my son wasn’t running a temperature, and wasn’t ill.

If he’s genuinely sick, I’d go in and comfort (including picking up and cuddling) – if and only if it was truly deemed necessary and butt-patting didn’t work.

For teething, medicate before bed and hope for the best.

I put a sippy cup of water in the crib just in case one of the girls gets thirsty, too.

For growth spurts and/or fullblown regressions, I go back to “by all means necessary”, starting always with the least interactive and regressing from there (resorting to sippies of milk, and the very last resort: pulling someone into bed with us, as needed to maintain MY sanity)

No–no more bottle, even if he feels crappy! I night-weaned my son around 10 months by having my husband go in to comfort instead of nursing him and it worked much like it did with Dylan. You will have to rock/comfort more (possibly) if he gets sick, but I would not go back to middle of the night feedings. FWIW, my son at 4.5 is back to waking in the night several times a week and wanting me to come in to comfort him–your post has reminded me that I need to try tough love again.

Sorry the weather here in Austin was so sucky while you were here. It was sunny and 80 degrees today!

American Airlines customer service dept. needs a swift kick in the ass; not that it would do any good.

Ugh to losing the wallet and I hope a good Samaritan finds it.

A big cheer for children greeting their parents at the door with smiles on.

Wow – great news about Dylan sleeping through the night (*knocking on wood for you*). We had a similar experience. We had to Ferberize my son around 8 months or so. Then he got sick pretty much all of last month on and off. So we reverted back to our old bad habits of taking him to bed with us when he woke up all snot-nosed and letting him nurse himself back to sleep. Great for him. Suck-tastic for me, since nursing a newborn to sleep is one thing. A 9-month-old squirmer is something else entirely. Now he’s 10 months and I’m reintroducing the little guy to my friend Dr. Ferber. We’ll see how it goes. But my softness only goes so far. I need some sleep, yo!

When we have had regressions from teething she has gone back to her old ways without a problem. I will say that and she won’t do it next time but I think she is usually just as thrilled to be back to her old self as we are. Maybe Dylan will be the same?

Or you could just go out of town again and let JB handle it, lol!

If he’s sick… definitely go to him. Keep in mind that 6 nights of excellent sleep and then one night of multiple wake ups will feel like he’s been waking up 5x a night, every night for the past month. Keep it in mind when you’re trying to get him back to sleep… it might help you keep your sanity. With my first, the regressions were easy… it seems things got back to normal after 3 or so days. My second boy is a whole different story. I eventually realized that he’s a completely different personality and happy that I don’t have carbon copies ;)

If he’s teething, try Motrin or Tylenol. I found Motrin worked better for the girls. But if he’s sick, there is nothing wrong with a little babying (but no bottle!), but be prepared for a little sleep challenge after the sickness is over.

I have always had to just follow Bug’s cues when he’s sick or teething. We had one miserable illness a few weeks ago when he went back to sleeping with us again for two nights, and he went back to his crib just like nothing happened. I firmly believe that every night of him sleeping through/calming himself is another one that goes in his toolkit and makes it a little easier next time.

And this sounds really doofusy and probably does about as much good as talking to plants, but I have always (from the time he was really little) praised him on the nights that he slept through and told him that we’d be there if he needed us but that I was really proud that he’d taken good care of himself in the middle of the night. I like to believe it does something, just as I’d like to believe that last night at 3 am when I said, “Listen, we’re all really tired, so you’re going to stop coughing now and from here on out you’ll have no trouble sleeping tonight,” it made some kind of difference. But the kid DID sleep, until 8 am. So there.

PS Bug is at 21 months, if it helps. 14 months was bad, but he straightened right out around 16 months, sleepwise. Just another data point for you.

I would say that, in case of illness, any kind of comforting is okay, but try your darndest to not give him anything but water.

Once we got our kid to sleep fairly well (also through a few nights of CIO, which was totally right for him), we tried not to reintroduce any of our previous soothing techniques when he got sick. We actually brought in new comfort items when our kid got sick or had a sleep regression, like a new stuffed animal or blanket, mostly because we weren’t willing to pat him to sleep again, even if he was breathing like a rhinoceros. We soothed and comforted as much as he needed, but we also didn’t feed him, and put him into his crib awake. We were just winging it, but it seemed to work. You know, aside from the 5 AM wakeup today, jesus.

NO BOTTLE EVERRRRRRRRRR. Take it from me: EVERYONE WILL SUFFERRRRRR!!!!!

Out of my four children (youngest is two, oldest is 10), the little one is my best sleeper. My oldest still gets up at least three times between 8:30 (when he’s SUPPOSED to be in bed) and 2:00-ish.

SO IRRITIATING.

I’d love to have children who slept straight through the night!

Hi!

My kid is 14 months. He sleeps through the night so I know something is wrong when he wakes up in the middle of the night. I always go to him when he’s sick. He bounces back to his regular routine pretty easily once he’s feeling better. I’m probably doing the wrong thing but I figure I’m here to make him feel better and quite frankly…when I’m sick I’d love someone to come take care of me day or night.

You’re doing great!

We were Ferberizers, and we’ve always let our kids (2 and 4) sleep with us when they’re sick, for maximum snuggle time and to minimize the number of times we have to get out of bed. That’s not for everyone, I realize. But to me, sick kids deserve special treatment. And afterwards, yeah, there’s always a bit of sleep regression, but one night of retraining usually takes care of it. They know now that yeah, you can sleep in mommy and daddy’s bed sometimes, but when we say no, we mean it. It will all be better from here!

I don’t really have advice about the teething, but with the bottle I’d advise to not allow regression on that one. If the bottle is gone, or only at a specified time, then leave it what it is. Supplement with extra snuggles!

That is how I knew my kids were sick or teething once they started waking up at night again…..once ear infection, or teething matter is dealt with(usually only a few nights) back to the regime….may have a fussy night or 2 but now that you know it will work you will have the stamina to get thru it….congrats on getting some needed rest!!….now I am up up all hours waiting for my teens to get home, so the sleep deprivation is always there in one form or another when you’re a parent!

You will have periods of regression. NO BOTTLE. Mommy will sometimes have to rock or soothe him but the bottle will send you back a year.

Regressions: what everyone else said. If the kid was sick enough, we let him/her sleep with us, and it never seemed to be a problem. The fussy/fevery sort of thing was worse. I’d agree with staying away from the bottle even if you do everything else.

We never had much trouble with teething, I don’t know why. #3 had one problem tooth; we had just been visiting my grandmother, so we used her solution: a couple drops of scotch on the gums! Worked like a champ. (and no, she didn’t become an alcoholic; but don’t try to drink her under the table, you WILL lose. Not that there is any relation!)

Air travel sucks so much any more. I would pay a premium on every air ticket just to pay the TSA gestapo to stay home and not bother me. Nothing, but nothing, that they do in the airport has anything at all to do with security. It’s all for show. But I could rant on for pages about how stupid it is, so I had better stop now.

Congrats on making progress on the sleep front. Great pics and videos, too, btw — everyone looks great. Your boys are adorable. As a non-Mom, I don’t have a lot of advice, but it looks like you’re getting lots of sage words — I might second think the Botox thing, though. (Hello???!!)

Welcome home!

I think if Dylan is sick or teething, I would go in and comfort him. After all he isn’t feeling well. No bottle though.

Sleep regressions happen. With Nate I try to comfort him as best as I can. If its teeth, then tylenol and rocking. if he is sick then rocking, back rubbing, cuddling, etc.

I was pretty strick with the feedings at night. Once he stopped them on his own there was no going back and bottles were gone at a year. After 9 months or so there was no NEED for him to eat in the middle of the night and so he wasn’t given the opportunity.

I keep a sippy cup with water in his room and if he is thirsty then he gets that. he is fine with it.

Good luck!

They usually can go back to the routine pretty quickly once they’re feeling better. You’ll probably find that he isn’t that interested in a middle-of-the-night bottle once he isn’t used to it anymore, so hopefully that won’t even be an issue.

Wow, for a second I thought that spam comment about Botox was a sleep training technique that I’d missed somehow. Because I’d totally try that.

Glad to hear things are improving in the sleep department. Now send your magic to my house.

Try to comfort when he’s sick without the bottle. It will be easier to go back to the routine when he’s feeling better that way.

With Jack I do a minimal comforting when he’s not feeling well, but I haven’t (yet) gone back to the middle-of-the-night bottles. So far a few pats and back rubs have been sufficient and when he feels better it hasn’t been an issue to go back to the No Intervention Rule.

I go in and comfort with a little cup of water or juice or whatever. We never had a big regression after a bout of sickness. When she is actively sick, she gets weepy and doesn’t sleep well. Once she starts to feel better, she just seems to naturally go back to her own routine.

We did the sleep training thing with my Riley at 4 months old and it was the worst 3 nights of my life. Before that terrible weekend in the fiery depths of hell, he was waking-up 3 to 4 times per night and wasn’t napping during the day more than a total of 20 minutes. We knew we had to get him on a strict schedule – Our very lives depended on it. So I memorized the Baby Whisperer EASY plan and after the 3 nights of ear shattering wailing (him and me), we were doing a “dream feed” once a night and he was sleeping… From 7:30pm to 7am. He was also taking 2, 2 hour naps during the day. We dropped the dream feed at 5 months and he was sleeping a solid 12 hours without a bottle. Everything was going swimmingly until he came down with the croup… and then the flu at 8 months old. He was sick for 3 weeks and we tried to be mindful of the schedule but let him sleep as much as he wanted and eat when ever he was willing. Oh, and during this time he was also cutting a new tooth and was going through a 9 month growth spurt. So, we ended-up 5 weeks later with a slightly larger, healthy baby, heavy one tooth and a nasty habit of demanding a bottle at 3am. Last weekend we went back to the drawing board and I expected the same traumatic experience… The first night he cried off and on for an hour and I went in to comfort him only once. The second night he fussed for 10 minutes and was back asleep with no intervention. The 3rd night he slept from 7pm to 7am! So I think (hope with every molecule of my being) that once they are used to a schedule, it doesn’t take much to get them back into the groove.

Def. comfort when sick. NO MORE BOTTLES tho! Little drink of water, maybe. Don’t know if you do any cold meds, but if feverish, we administer middle of the night tylenol or motrin which includes a trip on hip to the kitchen. Then back to bed immediately and mamma is gone. No lights, etc. Quick as possible.

Just wanted to add that I too hate hate American Asslines. They forgot my handicapped mom in a hallway and she missed her flight. They would not give me anything to make up for that. I didn’t fly them for three years. When I flew them again, I had an eticket, their personnel made me get in the (longer) paper ticket line. When I protested, she threatened me with arrest! I missed my flight (and a wedding rehearsal)and they would not give me anything to make up for that either. Bastards!