What have I done?
I know I'm not the first or the last mom to struggle with getting a baby to sleep in their crib ... but here I am admitting how bad I am at it.
Sure, I had great intentions to do Baby Wise while I was pregnant and I loved the information I read in Sleep Sense, but somehow those tips and techniques never translated to real life. Partly, because I didn't want to be on a schedule. I wanted Linley to be able to go with the flow. Selfishly, I didn't want to have to be home by a certain time or be stuck at home while she napped. And in all fairness, she is a great baby. She goes with the flow. We can go anywhere and everywhere at anytime. She sleeps great (as long as she's in bed with us) and she is happy all the time. She rarely cries, even when she's tired. And, it works. We don't mind that she sleeps with us. We actually kind of like snuggling all night!
It donned on me though, that if we ever decide to leave her we may have some issues. Will she sleep if I'm not right there? If she's not in our bed? And, that brings me to the little test we decided to perform two nights ago.
I nursed Linley. She fell asleep in my arms, and I took her into her crib. She'll usually stay asleep in her crib for a few hours before waking up about 2 or 3 AM. At that point I'll usually bring her back to bed with us. I nurse her and we both fall back to sleep. Well on that night, the minute I sat her down she started crying. We let her cry for about an hour. She stood up in her crib and screamed the entire time.
Now, she refuses to even be by her crib. If we're in her room and I say, "Linley, do you want to sleep in your crib?" she squeezes me tight.
Today, I put her in her crib after she fell asleep in my arms. Same thing. Screamed and stood up the second I put her in the crib. I let her cry for about 30 minutes but then I became a wimp.
It's hard. I hate it. And, it makes it even worse that I can watch her every agonizing move.
Any advice?
Cute blog Courtney! Linley is a doll! I don't know if this advice will help... We started having sleeping success with Alexa only after we got her to put herself to sleep. (without nursing her to sleep) Anyway, here is the rest of our story getting her to sleep through the night in her crib.
ReplyDeletehttp://steveanddaniellejackson.blogspot.com/2010/02/sleeping-all-night.html
I hope something in there might help! Good luck!
I did the cry it out in the crib with Brighton too. It worked great for me but it was SOOO HARD! http://caughtbyawebb.blogspot.com/2010/05/sleep-training-day-3.html here is a blog I did about it. But if I could give any advise. You need to decide in your mind and be on the same page with Darin. That you will not get her out of bed it just confuses her when you do and when you put her in her bed make sure she is awake so she can learn to put herself to sleep. Then when she wakes up she will put her self back to sleep. I know it is soo hard I was just like you. One more piece of advise. Put in your I-pod or something. Listening is just torture. If you stay strong in a week or less she will have it down.
ReplyDeleteI have always put my kids to bed awake so they learn to put themselves to sleep. You are a much nicer mommy. And I think you have to do what works for you, but I would recommend turning off the monitor and putting her down, you might have to go outside so you can't hear it. I finally did that at night so Dallin would sleep through the night. But it only takes a couple times and they figure out they aren't going to win and you will all be much happier. Good luck, sleep training is tough!
ReplyDeletethis is the hardest thing to do for me. my babies love to be swaddled so i would always swaddle and rock them. I love that time with them but once my daughter Kenya was 7 months i decided i couldn't do that forever so i started to sleep train her. it was so hard and i wasn't 100% committed so i gave up. finally at 8 months i put my foot down and had to let her cry herself to sleep. it was the worst week ever because she was such an easy going good baby that i hated to hear her cry.sometimes she would even fall asleep sitting up! but after a week of Hell literally she became the best sleeper. I thought there was no end in sight. but she improved everyday. and now looking back on it I am so glad we did the sleep training with her. it makes it so much easier to lay them down and have them put themselves to sleep.We are now in the process of getting our now 8 month old Jayda to sleep through the night............not fun but so worth it in the end! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI am such a new Mom that I don't know if my advice is very valid, but Milo has been sleeping in his crib for 2 straight months now. These are links to articles I read and tried and they worked really well, I don't know though since your baby is older, but see what you think. Milo goes into his crib completely awake and puts himself to sleep without any crying at all, if that is encouraging.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/27/earlyshow/living/parenting/main663169.shtml
http://elcaminopediatrics.com/healthinfo-infant-sleep-habits-012103.htm
good luck courtney! i'm pretty sure i gave you the information i used. its seriously the hardest thing you will have to do - but SO worth it!! ivy is the best sleeper in the world because of it, for both naps and night time. all we have to do is put her in and say good night. its great!
ReplyDeleteim dreading the day we start sleep training olive.