A little background: we started sleep training when W turned six months. We focused exclusively on nights. I know, this goes against the rules of our book (and probably all the others too). Nights were our domain, with the nanny coming during the day, so it seemed more urgent. For reasons that are no longer clear to me, we didn't feel great about having the nanny do the cry-it-out routine, plus a little part of me was like, well, we're paying her to take care of him so why shouldn't she rock him to sleep? 

So nights went well for awhile, until we started bringing him into our bed in the morning. At first, he was waking up at an acceptable time and it was just pure convenience for me to nurse him lying down in bed. Then he started waking earlier and earlier and earlier, and pretty soon he had us hostage - going to sleep every night in his own bed and waking us up at 4, 3, 2 a.m., when we were too addled to think straight and would just bring him to our bed. This was nice for cuddling but overall was not a good situation for us.

So, the sleep-training vacation. With the nanny gone all week, we went back to the basics of the book (The Sleep Easy Solution), letting him cry when he woke up too early and checking in after 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, etc., and also coming up with a nap schedule and mini routine. The early morning thing was the hardest, but after a few nights/mornings hanging out on the couch outside the nursery, that was pretty much set. We made it to an 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. schedule, and I was shocked how easy the nap schedule has been, just letting him be awake 3-4 hours, then having a little story and some milk in the sippy and to bed! 

He seems so much more well-rested and I feel like we are, too. The only downside is we have barely any time to do anything outside the house. This is the aspect of nap training and sleep training that we dreaded, because in general, since he was born, we have just carried on with our lives and let W sleep in the car or the stroller. Now, if we're lucky we can get to the nearest mall to walk around for a bit before rushing back to the house for nap time. But I think it's worth it because once we go back to work, the nanny can manage the schedule on weekdays and we can cheat a bit on weekends, right?