Sleep Training Part 1

My daughter was a great night sleeper. During the day she would fight naps and would really go down for about 45 here and there, mostly in the car; but at night she was out for the count and we were able to get a restful night sleep. With my son I unintentionally began to co-bed. Now I have nothing against parents who feel this is the best for their family, but for us it was killing my back, sanity and probably my kidneys thank to those little kickers.
At six months I decided I had to get a handle on this and reclaim my bed before things got worse. So I began searching around for how to make this transition and found some great articles, and by great I mean someone else out there was going through the same thing I AM NOT ALONE!
It worked great for about 3 nights instead of waking every 1-2 hours he was waking every 3-4. Progress! But then we all got sick and to cranky,exhausted, and drained to keep up with sleep training and so we were back to square one.
This pattern happened over and over every couple months. Until one night a couple weeks ago I said that's it. At 14 months I knew there was no "need" to wake up and nurse. I also knew that I would have to stick to my guns because as exhausting as it is to wake every couple hours and have little hands claw at you to hold them; it was also deliciously bliss. Those quiet moments in the night, snuggling close and smelling the lotion you put on just before bed to help him sleep (but didn't really work); I was about to give those up. But I knew it was time, and I knew it would be more beneficial for him than me. And it was.
Our bedtime routine is about 7 pm bath, lotion, pajamas, and Taylor Swift. Yep you read right, Taylor Swift. She is the key to this whole operation. We noticed that 99% (my fake statistic) of the time if he was cranky or upset and TS came on the radio or we played one of her YouTube videos he would immediately calm down and start smiling and even wiggle waddle dance. So now we end our evenings with 'Shake it Off" and 'Blank Space.'
Then comes quite time where I nurse for a couple minutes, but in actuality I feel its more of a soothing time more than anything. My daughter loved her "peshis" aka pacifier, Max has never wanted one. I can tell that he's ready for bed because he starts stirring, and rolling looking for a comfy spot. That's when I take him to his room, and place him in his crib. Some days he goes down with out a peep, a simple roll over and a hug to his blanket. Other days he cries and screams bloody murder for a few seconds as I leave the room and settles in. In this round he has never cried more than a few minutes. Before this he could cry for an hour, snooze for 25 minutes and start again.
Now he is asleep by 7:45 pm and I have my evenings back so I can get some work done.
He does still wake up at about 3:30 am, and rise and shine is at about 6:45 am; so we still have work to do but now he is a lot more pleasant, rested, energetic in a good way. He is also less clingy during the day and eager to explore.
Hopefully this is the beginning of sweet dreams.