Thank Goodness for the Crate

After the night of no sleep, it was obivous that we needed some help. Luckily I work with a bunch of trained professionals!

So for Operation Get-Trooper-To-Sleep, my first order of business was to get Trooper his very own crate!

My co-workers are awesome. When I came into work the next morning there was a cozy crate waiting for me at my office door. Soon after I got a lesson on how to use it:

• Put him in the crate, shut the door
• Cover the crate with a blanket so it's dark and cozy inside
• Firmly tell Trooper to be quiet when he cries or barks and then ignore him
• Get him used to the crate by putting him in there for about an hour at a time

Following this lesson and keeping in mind the night before, I obtained some ear plugs to make the ignoring process easier.

I'm happy to report the crate made a huge difference immediately!

Here's how the crate training progressed:

Night #1 - Trooper cries and barks for about 1 hour after we put him to bed and intermittently throughout the night. At one point we hear a weird banging noise along with the barking and crying, which we ignore because of our excellent foster parent training. Turns out the banging noise was Trooper moving the crate across the dining room and rotating it about 45 degrees. The crate is about 20 pounds and Trooper's less than 10 - an impressive feat for such a little guy! This activity really tires him out so he sleeps soundly for the next 3 hours. Trooper wakes up for good at 5:00 am barking and crying until I get him up at about 6:30 am.

With his Hulk-like strength, Trooper moves his crate across the dining room and rotates it approximately 45 degrees.

Night #2 - Barks for about an hour after we put him to bed, sleeps through the night, wakes up barking and crying at 5:00 am until I let him out of the crate at 6:30 am.

Night #3 - Barks for about 15 minutes after we put him to bed, sleeps through the night, wakes up barking and crying at 6:00 am until I let him out of the crate at 6:30 am.

Night #4 - Barks for about 5 minutes before settling down, sleeps all night long, we wake him up at 7:00 am when we let him out of the crate.

Rejoice!!! Thankfully, every night is now like Night #4 except he now sleeps soundly until 7:30 am. I'm such a proud mama. He is a sleeping champion!!!! And Jay and I are well rested, productive and happy once again!

He likes his crate so much he now goes in there on his own while we're at the office! What a smart guy!