A happy baby girl in the morning, flipped on her belly facing the door, waiting for her mommy and daddy to pick her from her crib.
Note: What you are about to read is something both Byron and I decided to do together as parents. I ask that you would respect this choice and keep all negative comments to yourself if you don't agree with what we did. Thank you!
Those who are friends with me through facebook already know that Emma has been going through "boot camp" for a full week now. This means that I have been working on training her to sleep through the night.
Emma turned 7 months and was continuing to wake up at least twice during the nights. Many nights she would wake up more than that. Her desire to be nursed several times during the evening, in addition to her not wanting to eat solids, were literally sucking the life out of me. She was more than 7 months old, practically exclusively breastfed. There were days when she would nurse 7 times through out the day. *Yikes*
So after talking to a few friends, and checking with her doctor, Byron and I decided to go "cold turkey" with it. Her regular hours to wake up during the night were around 1 am and then again at around 5 am. We decided to drop the 1 am feeding. (At that point we had also already started feeding her three times a day. Still wasn't eating much, but something was something, right?)
First night was way too hard. She woke up at around 11 pm (earlier than normal) and cried for a good 20 minutes until I went in to feed her. Fail! I convinced myself that I would stick to my plan better the next night.
Next night she woke up at 1ish and cried and cried for about 40 minutes. Then she was quiet! Checked in on her to make sure her blanket was on her, and headed back to sleep.
Next day she cried for longer. On and off for about 3 hours. So hard! Then 4:30 am rolled around, I got out of bed and nursed her (btw, 4:30 am is the earliest I will go in and feed her).
Third night woke up as normal, cried a little, then fell back asleep.
Fifth night came around... NOTHING! Did not hear a sound come out of her until 5 am.
And later nights have continued the same, mostly sleeping through the night. She'll still wake up and cry, but it's normally because she hears thunder or gets stuck between crib mattress and bumper (yes, we've removed it since then). Byron may go in and console her when these things happen, but otherwise I will not go in to her room unless it's at least 4:30 am.
I guess I just kept hoping that she would naturally adjust to sleeping through the night. I really did not want to have to do this. But she didn't! She kept waking up. I knew of babies her age and younger who were already sleeping long hours at night, so I decided I would do it. And I did!
Besides, this is not the first time I am going to have to make Emma do something she does not like, right?
*sigh* The joys of parenting... :)
Emma turned 7 months and was continuing to wake up at least twice during the nights. Many nights she would wake up more than that. Her desire to be nursed several times during the evening, in addition to her not wanting to eat solids, were literally sucking the life out of me. She was more than 7 months old, practically exclusively breastfed. There were days when she would nurse 7 times through out the day. *Yikes*
So after talking to a few friends, and checking with her doctor, Byron and I decided to go "cold turkey" with it. Her regular hours to wake up during the night were around 1 am and then again at around 5 am. We decided to drop the 1 am feeding. (At that point we had also already started feeding her three times a day. Still wasn't eating much, but something was something, right?)
First night was way too hard. She woke up at around 11 pm (earlier than normal) and cried for a good 20 minutes until I went in to feed her. Fail! I convinced myself that I would stick to my plan better the next night.
Next night she woke up at 1ish and cried and cried for about 40 minutes. Then she was quiet! Checked in on her to make sure her blanket was on her, and headed back to sleep.
Next day she cried for longer. On and off for about 3 hours. So hard! Then 4:30 am rolled around, I got out of bed and nursed her (btw, 4:30 am is the earliest I will go in and feed her).
Third night woke up as normal, cried a little, then fell back asleep.
Fifth night came around... NOTHING! Did not hear a sound come out of her until 5 am.
And later nights have continued the same, mostly sleeping through the night. She'll still wake up and cry, but it's normally because she hears thunder or gets stuck between crib mattress and bumper (yes, we've removed it since then). Byron may go in and console her when these things happen, but otherwise I will not go in to her room unless it's at least 4:30 am.
I guess I just kept hoping that she would naturally adjust to sleeping through the night. I really did not want to have to do this. But she didn't! She kept waking up. I knew of babies her age and younger who were already sleeping long hours at night, so I decided I would do it. And I did!
Besides, this is not the first time I am going to have to make Emma do something she does not like, right?
*sigh* The joys of parenting... :)
Let me just say, you are her parents and you are wonderful parents. Everyone has an opinion and everyone thinks they are right, but you know what, they don't have your child, each child is so very different. you guys are awesome and are great parents!!!! We ask for advice here and there but we all have to figure out what works for us and our kids, and thankful that we can go to the Lord in prayer to figure it out.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're beginning to see a light at the end of the sleep deprivation tunnel! It's so hard to know what to do sometimes with each child, but I think you guys are doing awesome. :) And...te echo de menos esta semana... :( Soooooo very ready for Masters to be over for many reasons!
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