Sleep Training

A few friends have asked how sleep training went last week, so I thought I'd update here.  It really went awesome!  I started out saying that 5 minutes would be my initial check-in; if she cried for 5 minutes, I'd go in to reassure her I was still here, rub her back, and then leave, slowly increasing the amount of time between checks, just like the Ferber method suggests.  Well, Thursday night, she woke up a total of 8 times, and only once did she make it to the 5 minute mark.  The other times, she laid back down and fell back asleep on her own....but around 4:30 she was still crying, and I decided at that point to go ahead and nurse her, which was against my initial plan, but that was ok with me.  Since then, every night has been the same.  If she wakes up, she puts herself back to sleep, and then around 4-5am, she's up, I nurse her for a few minutes, and then she's back asleep until somewhere between 6 and 7.  There was one night just recently that she woke up around 1, cried for a few minutes, then calmed down and was quiet.  Well, she had woke Jarrod up, and since she was quiet, he assumed she was back to sleep and he went in to check on her.  She, in fact, wasn't asleep, and he picked her up and brought her in to me.  Silly boy.  I just took her right back in, laid her down, and she cried for a few minutes, then fell asleep.  So, sleep training was a huge success...instead of being up every couple of hours, I'm getting much better sleep and so is Riley.  I know sleep begets sleep, and this week, she's been back to taking two naps, which is slightly annoying and throwing off my days, but we'll deal with it for now. I'm just glad she's sleeping!  Now, we'll work in a few weeks to eliminate the 4-5am feeding as we wean her completely and transition her to milk! Yikes...my baby girl is almost ONE!

I know what I said...

...but this is too exciting not to share! Gavin cried for 15 minutes last night, fell asleep around 7:40 and I didn't go back in to him room until....are you ready???....7:15AM!!! He made some noises between 10 and 11, and I watched him on the monitor sit up and move around, but he never cried out for me. I slept in my own bed all night!!! :) AMAZING!

Ferber: Night 3

Last update, I promise. I know some of you may be getting tired of these sleep updates :)

Last night, he laid down right away and Jarrod and I kept looking at each other in amazement, but then started standing up and screaming about 5 minutes later. When Jarrod went in at the 10 minute point, the room smelled horrible! No wonder he was screaming! Jarrod changed his diaper, and within 20 minutes, he was asleep. He woke up once, about 4 1/2 hours later, and again was asleep within 20 minutes...no nursing needed. He slept until 6:30 this morning! So, he made it all night without me feeding him. Great progress!

We'll see how things go the next couple of nights while Jarrod's out of town and not here to help!

Ferber: Night 2

We're getting there! After 47 minutes of crying last night, he finally decided to lay down and go to sleep. You should have seen him falling asleep sitting up. At one point, when Jarrod went in for a check, he started rubbing his head and Gavin actually went to sleep sitting up. He motioned for me on the monitor to come see him. It was so cute. Anyway...he woke up around 10, and I didn't feed him. We decided that the night before he'd slept for 4 hour stretches, so that was our goal for last night. It took 20 minutes for him to go back to sleep. He woke again at 1:45. This time, I went in, changed his diaper and fed him for about 5 minutes. The I put him back in bed, and again it was 20-30 minutes of crying and he was asleep by 2:30. Then...are you ready for this??? He slept until 7:30 without another peep! Slowly but surely, he's getting better. The best part is that it's been two nights in a row that I've been able to sleep in my bed the whole night without little feet poking me or a head butting me! :)

Ferber: Night 1

Here's the update you've been wanting :)

After several days of preparing for going cold turkey, I changed my mind. I bought the Ferber book, and read that if you're nursing several times throughout the night, going cold turkey would be too hard on the child. Friday night I kept track...I nursed Gavin back to sleep, even if it was just a couple minutes, 5 times. So, we decided to go a little slower on the no-nursing thing.

I wanted to start later than his normal bedtime, but he was acting tired. So, we nursed for a little while in his room, then I sat him up and we read a book. That way he was still going down awake. We kissed him, told him goodnight, and left. Of course, he screamed. Jarrod went in after three minutes, then again after five more minutes...I went in ten minutes later. All the while, Gavin's screaming. When I went in, while I was wiping his face off, he threw up on me from crying so hard. No big deal, right? I just cleaned him up and left the room again, just like Dr. Wells said. About 35 minutes into this, I watched him on the monitor "climb" the bed rails...he was leaning over the crib and I swear he was about to fall out. I freaked out, ran in and got him, and Jarrod lowered the bed. So, we were already off track.

I nursed him a little bit more, and then we relaxed together until he seemed tired. I put him down again at 9:30 and the crying started again. After about 10 minutes, Jarrod went in and laid on the floor next to his bed. Within 5 minutes, Gavin was sound asleep. It wasn't the way we were supposed to do it, but it was the first night.

Gavin slept for 4 hours. Jarrod and I decided for the first night I'd nurse him as long as he'd gone 2 hours since the last time (and slowly we'll increase that time). So, I nursed him for just about 5 minutes, laid him down and we started the progressive waiting again. About 30 minutes later, he was asleep. We watched him on the monitor, and he was so cute hugging "Dog Dog" so tight. I'm so glad he has a lovey now.

Again, he slept for 4 hours and woke up around 5:30. I nursed him just a few minutes, laid him down, he cried 3 minutes and was asleep. But, he woke back up a few minutes later and sat in his bed playing with Dog Dog, no crying, for 20 minutes. At 6, we decided he was up for the day so Jarrod brought him out and got him breakfast.

All in all, it wasn't how thought the night would go, but I think he did much better than expected. I'm hoping those four hour stretches slowly lengthen. Sorry this is so long, but I know there are so many of you that would be asking how the first night went, and instead of repeating the whole story a thousand times, I thought I'd just blog about it. :)

I'll update you on Night 2 soon :)