If I could write a book on parenting ,half of it would be dedicated to teaching your child how to sleep.
Seriously!!
I've read so many books on the topic that even the librarian noticed. She asked me how lil was doing. ;)
It's been no mystery to those arounde how much I've been struggling with helping lil to get enough sleep.
Since about December she was entering a weird state where she would only sleep for 20 minutes. I scolded myself at what a horrible parent I was. Despite everyone telling me "it will get easier," I just didn't believe them.
I learned during this time that babies don't enter a heavy sleep until after 20 minutes of falling asleep.
t night we were still nursing Lil to sleep so I knew at least she was getting some rest.
We tried everything; from getting her to soothe with a paci, car rides, ergo walks, and stroller rides. Although I got in great shape from exercising everyday, sometimes twice, a part of me knew that our lives could not always be doing this.
5 months later nothing changed. We still nursed her to sleep or pushed her in a stroller for naptime.
I decided to give cry it out a try.
This method went against everything in my mamaness stood for.
After about a month of trying it, it worked. Lil would cry/whine for about 10 minutes and be asleep.
Scene: We change her diaper, give her Melvin, turn on Pandora to Rockabye Baby music, close the blinds, and put her in her crib.
Side note; I want to explain how we did this. I first had to notice when lil would get tired. She would rub her eyes and become fussy. If after 20 minutes she didn't settle down, we did without a nap, which was very difficult. On occasion when learning her sleep cycle I did let her cry for an hour.
Okay so we got her to fall asleep, but no more than 1 hour would she sleep Nd I knew she needed at least 3 hours of naps during the day. That I was confident in.
What was it?
I soon recognized that she was waking up sweating and put two and two together and began putting her to sleep in just a diaper. This helped quite a bit. It still got warm in her room occasionally due to the triple degree weather :(.
Then came night time in the crib.
We decided as a family that we would wait until after our vacation to do so. We stopped a few of her middle of the night feedings while in Tahoe. When she'd wake we'd bounce her back to sleep or sometimes just let her cry in our bed until she found a comfortable position.
Then came the moment. We put her in without a night feeding. She woke up about an hour later and we brought her to our room. This happened twice. On the third night, SHE DID IT!!! SHE SLEPT 13 HOURS.
I still didn't get as much rest due to the fact that I was worried she wasn't breathing in there.
Happy to say that she is doing great and though its not perfect, this was the right time for us. She's growing up so much!!
How did sleep training go for you?
