My baby has lots of strengths- a friendly smile, beautiful blues eyes, strong legs for crawling & standing- but sleep is not one of them. She's been a light sleeper since the day she was born. It should not have surprised me when my baby still was waking multiple times a night at 7 weeks old (the age my friend's baby was sleeping through the night). While 7 weeks is awfully young, 8 months seems a bit old to still be waking multiple times a night and eating once.
So, for the last three weeks we've been doing sleep training. We've been trying to let her cry it out a bit when she wakes up at times other than an eating time so she can better learn to self soothe. Also, we have been pushing back the night feeding by 15 minutes gradually until she is weaned from night feeding. We made it to 5:30 and had gotten stuck. Several times she has cried for over an hour until 5:30, even with me checking in on her.
But then! Friday and Saturday night she didn't eat until she woke up for the day! I can't say she slept through the night because she woke up crying 4 times Friday night and 1 time last night, but she didn't eat until she was up for the morning! She slept right through the 5 o'clock hour. I'm thrilled! It's amazing how much more rested I feel without having to get up for a half an hour feeding in addition to the multiple trips just to give her the pacifier back.
I'm writing this on Sunday night hoping she'll do the same (or maybe even better!) tonight. I'm so proud of my girl :)
7 comments:
what a beautiful baby!!! hope she sleeps better sooner rather than later :)
you inspire me!!!! i've been to afraid to use CIO at night but those nights when i'm up 6 times a night HAVE GOT TO END. keep us updated on how things go this week :)
My little guy was NEVER a good sleeper. In fact I couldn't put him down for the first 12 weeks of his life or he would jar awake! We are approaching the 7 months mark and while he still waked up at night, some nights are better than others. The hardest time for him to get through is between 4-6am. He will wake up 4, 5:00, 5:30 etc. I've since learned that it is apparently their lightest period of sleep so that explains it. He has been getting good at putting himself to sleep since around 5 months so it's not that he "can't" get back to sleep. Now that he's exploring so much more, I find it so hard to get him to eat all that he needs during the day and I think that's what's causing some of the problem of late. Then there's teething - always something!
Hope the night went fantastically! I know CIO can be super stressful, but I know for us we're all a lot happier now - but those first few days felt like they might not end. I love all of the "M sleeping" photos - too cute!
So cute! Lovely blog you have here!
xoxo,
colormenana.blogspot.com
Go M!!! What a big girl. I'm glad she gave you a little relief, and she'll probably wake up a lot happier once she figures out how to sleep all night without crying. Owen still cries around 4:30am most nights... only for a few minutes, and then he goes right back to sleep, but there's something about that early morning time that startles him awake!
I LOVE all of those pictures you have of Owen sleeping. I've always been so anal about sleeping in the crib, and keeping his nursery as quiet as possible that I don't think I have one picture of him sleeping (except maybe when he slept on our chests as a teeny tiny guy). I'll miss that totally relaxed, chubby cheeked face he makes when he falls asleep. You've inspired me to catch it on film :)
Duh, I mean M sleeping. You don't have any pictures of Owen sleeping. Do you? Hee hee.
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