Sleep training: Night 3
- 7:30pm: Lil Bug racked out a little earlier than usual but it made sense because we ran around all day and she had to catch her naps in the carseat between errands. (This is the ONLY time I am thankful for DC traffic)
- 10:15pm: She woke up and fussed around, so I set the timer (10 minutes for night 3). She was back asleep on her own by about 7 minutes.
- 2:30am: I woke up and looked at the monitor. She was sitting cross-legged in the crib quietly examining her pacifiers... for some reason, I find this slightly creepy. Apparently, she found the right one, laid down and was back asleep in a few minutes. ***Side Note*** She has never been able to push herself into a seated position from lying down. Who knows what else she's been doing when she thinks no one is watching!
- 5:35am: She wakes up and is ready for breakfast. Since I hadn't nursed for close to 10 hours, I was beyond ready to accommodate her, YOWZA!!! She eats for about 20 minutes and is ready for sleep again.
- 8:00am: Happy baby girl, ready to start the day!
I should mention a couple things that I forgot to in my previous sleep training posts. First of all, Grace has been doing a form of CIO for quite awhile now, I just didn't realize it. I've been putting her down in her crib while she's still awake for months. Apparently, that's a huge part of the process and one that causes parents mucho grief. Ferber mentions that if you are already doing that, eliminating middle of the night wake ups will be relatively simple. If I'd have known just HOW simple, I would have started it a long time ago! The other thing, is that I would normally bring her to bed with us in the early morning, i.e. 4:00am and on. He says that this is a no-no as you want your little one to associate one place with sleep. This makes me kind of sad because I love cuddling with her but if it means a solid night's sleep, we'll figure out another way to get our cuddle time in!
I'm kind of astonished at how well this process is working, so far. I expected to have at least a few nights of the up and down crying bouts. So, if you have been thinking about trying the method but were hesitant because you weren't sure if you could handle it, I would say try it! Of course, not every child is going to respond the same way but you never know, you might be three nights away from 10 uninterrupted hours of sleep!!!
XOXO,
Mrs. B
