SLEEP!!! I NEED SLEEP!!

Well Simon has been so lousy at sleeping at night that I have had enough. Here is a rundown of a typical night with Simon. At around 6:30 or 7pm I nurse him one last time before bed. This is with being wrapped up in his blanket really tight so his arms can't get free. If his arms are free they fly around all over and he cries. So I nurse him all the way to sleep because heaven forbid if I put him in his crib awake! When he is good and out as gently as I can I roll him out of my arms into his crib onto his side. He likes sleeping on his side for some reason. Slowly walk away and close his door. Now if I am luck that is all I have to do to get him to sleep. But a lot of the time I am going back upstairs 5 min. later to sooth him to sleep again. Then that is all. Oh wait, there's more. On a good night He will sleep till about 12 or 1 for a feeding. On a bad night I have had him wake up anywhere from 9:30-11:30. That does not start off the night well. I nurse him, rock him, gently put him back in his crib just as before and if I am lucky that is all I have to do. Then at about 3 he is again calling for me for another feeding... not so bad thus far ight. It this was it I would have no problems. But this is the problem feeding. Let me go on and you will understand what I am talking about. I feed him at 3 but he does not really want to eat. He just needed a little comfort. So I put him back as usual. But this time he does not sleep for another 3 hours. Somehow he knows that I did not feed him on both sides. Even though he was in a deep sleep he still wakes up 3 min. later to eat on the other side. Back to bed he goes. Well for another 5-10 min anyway. After about 30 min. or so of this he is finally in bed for good. Now it is about 3:30or so. He will then wake up every hour for the rest of whats left of night time sleeping. I then give in around 6-6:30am (by this time Hugh is gone to PT) and I bring Simon into my bed which is a king size and one side is against the wall and I lay him on that side and give him some toys. He plays there while I sleep until the other 2 kids get up around 6:30 or 7. I then turn on the TV in my room for them to watch while I get as many min. of shut eye as I can. Lately I have been so tired that Katie will get her and Leo breakfast in the morning. Its fun having a child old enough to pour cereal.
So on to the good news. Since Hugh is gone for a little while I decided to take this opportunity to let Simon learn how to sooth himself to sleep. I do not have to worry about his heart anymore or a Daddy that feels bad letting his little boy cry or worrying about Daddy waking up in the middle of the night with Simon crying and he has to ge to work in the morning. So last night I got the kids into bed fairly easy by 6:50. That included feeding Simon without being wrapped up or nursing him to sleep. Everything was good for about 5 min. Then Simon did not like this idea and started crying. I was so exhausted from the night before that I was determined this was the night he would go to sleep by himself even if it took 3 hours. Well it didn't take that long. He cried for 1 hour. That was it just 1 hour. Now you may think "WOW that's a long time to let him cry." Well it really isn't I thought he was going to cry for at least 2. Then all was quiet. After about 5 min. of quiet I decided I wanted to check to make sure he was still breathing. Yup he was. He was no longer wrapped up tho and had pushed his head up into a corner. But there was no way I was going to move him. I did not want to take the chance of him waking up. I was paranoid however of when he would wake up. This was the first time he was sleeping unwrapped and i knew it would not last very long. So I skipped my shower. I finally decided it was going to be a long night so I should get as much shut eye as I could and went to sleep at about 9:30. At about 1am Leo called me to his room because he could not find his blanket. Since I knew the time then I knew Simon would be waking up any min. to eat like normal and I was going to have to listen to him cry. I was determined not to feed him before 3am. So I waited. And waited. It was not until about 5am that I was finally going to sleep and he finally woke up. I fed him right away... I was so ready if you know what I mean. Put him back in bed unwrapped after feeding him and he slept for another hour. It was amazing. I did not think he would sleep so long the first night. I do hope tonight goes just as smooth if not smoother.
So for today's first nap I put him in bed gave him his pacifier, started his mobile and said good night. He cried for about 40 min. and is asleep like a good little boy. I do hope this will help him sleep better.
Oh yeah and Katie starts full day kindergarten on Tuesday!! We have a meeting with her teacher on Monday. I am so excited for her. I know she has been ready for this for a long time. I will be taking lots of pictures since Hugh will not be here for it.
Sorry about the long post. But there really is no appreciation for good sleep until you know what someone has been through. And I think I have been through a lot. I am sure a lot of his sleep problems came because of his heart and I did not want him to cry a lot. But now he is better and the Dr.s gave the ok about 2 months ago. So I have finally done it and I now know Simon can do it too.