Sleep Training

Sleep Training for a mom who hates the Cry It Out Method (CIO), but whose baby wakes as soon as she is out down if rocked or nursed to sleep.

Yes, therein lies my dilemma.

My (hopefully) solution is going to be a mixture of CIO and No-Cry methods. 

Last night was rough and neither baby, nor I, got sufficient sleep. Being that this was three nights in a row following her most recent growth spurt, which really left us sleep deprived, I woke up inspired to begin sleep teaching (I just realized I hate the word "training," so I'm not using it anymore...my baby is not a dog).

I actually got up when she woke up at 8:00 this morning, rather than feeding her and going back to sleep, as we have done in the past. I fed her in bed, then we went downstairs. She played on her mat for a while, practically turning 180 degrees as she played! When I saw her eyes getting heavy at about 9:30, we came back upstairs for her first practice at falling asleep "on her own." I helped her, of course.

I put her in bed, turned on her mobile and the music she enjoys. (It is from her bassinet. I thought maybe putting this familiar mobile in her crib would help with the transition). She lay there on her own, rubbing her eyes and moving her head from side to side as she does when tired. When she got fussy, I let her fuss a bit, but if she cried, I picked her up, consoled her and rocked her just until she settled, then I put her back in bed, patted her, shhhhed her, then left the room. At this point, I put the mobile on the water setting, but kept the bears moving.

Again, when she fussed, I let her be, when she cried, I consoled her until she settled, then put her down and left the room.

This cycle happened 5 times before she finally drifted to sleep, lying in the crib, all on her own, but she did it!!! She took a 30 minute nap. :-)

I was able to paint my toe nails, and file my fingernails. I've not painted my toe nails since she was about 2 weeks old, so this was a treat!

At 11:00 she awoke. I'm feeding her now. Afterward, I'll dress her for the day, then take her down to play. She should be ready for another nap around 1:00 and I'll try the new method again.

I just want to help her sleep better. She needs it and so do I. This may be a long day for us, but I'm going to try to make it as easy on her as possible.

I'm also going to be patient and keep in mind that this is our first real day of practice. It doesn't need to be perfect. She doesn't need to become an amazing sleeper by the end of the day. We are just practicing. One day she'll be a good sleeper.

This is going to be my focus today. I don't care if I do anything else. Yesterday I took care of the house, laundry, diapers, and baked the cookies, along with taking care of Kathryn. Today, I'm only going to focus on creating a flexible schedule for her and work on her sleep practice.

1:22 pm: Second nap a success! Only took 5 minutes for her to be in the crib and asleep! The water sound feature ob her mobile seems to help. I out her down when very drowsy. She opened her eyes for a second, I pat her bottom for a few seconds and she was out! Woot! Pic below.

I'm definitely going to keep doing this all day, for every nap.

What I'm doing...
As soon as I see her getting tired, I pick het up and rock her a bit. We come up to the nursery. I change her diaper, then we sit down to read a book. After that, I turn on the water feature, then rock her a little bit while singing a short lullaby. After that, I lay her in the crib. This time I went to the kitchen and cleaned up a little, but kept an ear out for her via the monitor. She only fussed. There was no crying. I came upstairs and she was fussing a bit more, so I picked her up, whispered to her, rocked her a little, then laid her down. She opened her eyes, then immediately went to sleep. :-)

Wonder if this will work for every nap? And when will I feel comfortable to be downstairs while she is up here? Our bedrooms are right next to each other. I'm going to take a moment to rest as well.