Well, as you know from my last blog, I have not been getting much sleep because Max has been having some trouble sleeping. It has gotten to the point where the bedtime bottle in given at 7:30pm and he is asleep anywhere from 9:30-10pm. He
no trouble sleeping while being held, but as soon as we set him down, he kicks and flails and wakes himself up. Then he usually wakes up around 1am, 3am, and 5 am, each time taking around 30 minutes to get back to sleep. Needless to say, I am exhausted, angry, and starting to have ugly thoughts about my child, so I bit the bullet last night and started the Sleep Lady Shuffle. I have heard lots of methods of sleep training and read a couple of books, but this is what I found worked really well for me and Hailey. The process is really pretty simple, there are three nights of sitting by the crib comforting (patting, gently
shhhhing, whatever works short of picking them up), and this should level off each night, and then three nights in the middle of the room with limited interaction past talking or
shhhing, three nights in doorway, etc. until you are putting them down and leaving. I found this
preferable to other methods because I felt like I wasn't completely abandoning them, but gradually getting them used to me not being part of
falling asleep. Others have said that they can't stand to see them cry and that is why they chose Ferber or other solutions, but this coupled with a schedule is what turned Hailey from a cranky, whiny 8 month old who got up 5 times a night and only took 30 minute naps if I was lucky, into a lovely baby who slept through the night and took regular 2-3 hour naps. Every child is different and all moms know what works for them and their children, but I do
recommend checking out "Good Night, Sleep Tight" by Kim West if you are having issues for any young age.
So, last night was our first night and Max screamed, kicked, and flailed for an hour, but I made it armed with my portable DVD player, headphones, and season one of Friends. Max went to sleep by 9pm with minimal help from me, and slept all the way until 7am. YEAH! Tomorrow is a new night, but am I
re-energized and ready to tackle this because I have hope and I have seen it work. I also have all ten seasons of Friends on DVD :) I will keep everyone updated on the ups and downs and wish me luck! Please feel free to leave comments on your own experiences. I would love to hear all about them!
This is how Max takes naps, because of his reflux he likes to be elevated :)
2 comments:
Hope you had a restful night last night! I definitely do not look forward to sleep training time again. I hope it will work as well for you this time as it did with Hailey.
I've always had the "let them cry it out" attitude. Never had a true method behind it. Just comforted them when they truly needed it. It's not easy to hear them cry but so worth it when you finally start to get some sleep! And it's good for them, too!
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