I feel the need to record how this is going somewhere so I might as well do that here so anyone who reads this blog (aka hi Angie) can follow along too.
Sleep training gets a bad rap so I didn't want to do it with my kids unless I had to. Elsie didn't need it. I had plenty of time to work on sleep routines with her....I can't believe how anal I was about doing a multi step routine in the same method every night. Plus she took a nuk so when she woke up at night, I popped that thing in and walked back out. Cora went sleep haywire around 7 months and I couldn't take it anymore. After doing sleep training with her, it turned out so well that I knew I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if necessary.
Sleep with Lainey has been up and down for quite some time....nothing consistent about how long or often she will sleep. I've been bouncing her to sleep each night for like 15 minutes. Even then, sometimes she pops back up 10 minutes later or an hour later ready to eat. She has been sick with colds and ear infections for the last 2 months so I've been putting this off. However, I got a bad cold this week and the lack of sleep has been even more difficult. Alaina was getting up every 30 minutes to 2.5 hours and I would feed or rock her each time...or sometimes bring her to bed with me or just fall asleep in the rocking chair. So that needed to change and 2 nights ago I took her to the doc and found out that she doesn't have an ear infection....so last night I started.
Day one:
I last nursed Alaina at 6:15. I then also warmed up some milk to try and make sure her tummy was full but she wouldn't drink from the bottle at all, which my mom was trying to feed her while visiting. I gave her some Tylenol before bed to try to make sure her cold wasn't bothering her too much.
I followed all of the same regular steps for bed time which is just to turn on the sound machine while I change her, suck boogers, rub her down (sometimes) with some oil stuff or lotion, and put her in the sleep sack. I turn off the lamp and play her cd and start bouncing. This time I just bounced her for one song and then laid her in her crib and left. I actually gave her a little lovey lamb thing (which I remove when she is sleeping) as well. To my suprise, she did not cry at all. She just started talking and making noises to herself and playing with the lamb a little. She fell asleep on her own. I left the room about 7:45 or so and she was asleep between 8-8:15.
9:30- she woke up crying and Matthew and I decided I should just feed her since it had been 3 hours since she last ate. Fed her on one side and back to sleep.
12:00- she woke up crying again and it quickly went to a full blown wail so I went in and fed her again. I decided that if she didn't sleep at least 3 more hours I wouldn't feed her next time. It's so hard because sleep training sites recommend no night feedings any more which I don't think she is ready for. So I made a note to self that I couldn't feed her unless it was after 3.
2:23- she woke up crying. I went in and rubbed the lovey on her face, said "it's ok, love you, goodnight" and left. 2:27 - went back in and did the same thing but also started her cd again. She kept crying and I was waiting until 2:35 to go back in. She was sobbing and I was full with milk at this point and it was very difficult to not just feed her but right before 2:35 her sobbing turned into self-comfort sounds and so I stayed out. Within another 5 minutes she was back to sleep. I was happy but the wailing caused so much anxiety in me that I couldn't fall back to sleep.
4:10- she woke up crying and I immediately fed her on one side, put her down, and I was finally able to get back to sleep too.
5 something - she woke up crying again but I was out cold and told myself I would go in and comfort her in a few minutes and I fell back to sleep. She must have gotten back to sleep too because I didn't continue to hear her anymore.
7:15- she woke up for the day and played by herself in her crib for 20 minutes while I finished handing out breakfast to the daycare kids. She didn't cry until she saw me.
Naps...
She showed signs of tiredness just before 9 so I put her in her sleep sack, turned on the music and noise machine, bounced for a few seconds and left. She got herself to sleep and slept 9:20-10:00. Then 11:50-12:30, and now is waking up from a nap from 2:10-2:50. I would definately like her to take some longer naps but I will take what I can get for now.
This thing is a huge help in the process, thanks for letting me borrow it!
We will see how things go tonight but I am feeling good about it so far!
Day 2:
Bedtime itself was pretty seamless again. We did the routine and she fell sleep in not too much time. This was around 8:15?
9:15 - back up. I decided to have her cry it out and not do a feeding. This was tough and she ended up crying until about 9:50. Matthew went in around 9:30 but it seemed to mske it worse so we stayed out.
Up for feedings at 12 and 3:30. I woke her up for the day at 6 so I could feed her again before we left for Elsie's surgery.
She napped at the hospital by being rocked in the car seat. Her next nap was in the car on the way home. Do these two were back out of the routine. She was laid down for her next nap, back in her crib, at 1:30. She cried for nearly a half hour and then slept like 10 minutes. I left her to cry and hopefully sleep more but she didn't so I got her out at 2:30. Next nap a little after 4 and she got to sleep quicker but only slept 25 minutes. At 6 she was acting tired and I just had her nap in her swing for a half hour because I needed a break from the crazy...especially with Elsie being needier from having her surgery today.
I put her to bed tonight about 8:30...it is currently 8:54 and she is still crying. Conclusion: day two has been tougher than day one.
Day 3:
Putting Alaina to bed on the third night turned put to be the worst of all. She ended up crying for just over an hour....brutal. Bed at 8:30, finally sleeping at 9:37. She woke up a little after 10 and I went to feed her. She fell asleep eating and I put her back to bed. A few minutes later she woke up crying and cried for about 10 minutes before getting back to sleep. She woke up a couple times in the night to eat. I fed her at 5:30 and she was still awake after. I laid her in the crib and she fell back to sleep on her own....then slept until 8 in the morning!
Today naps have been much better. She fell asleep during tummy time so I left her there and it ended up being a short one...25 minutes or so. I put her down for her next one at 12 and she fell asleep on her own and slept until 1:45! Next nap 3:45-5:15. Put to bed at 7:30 and she fell sleep without crying tonight, thank goodness.
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