We started sleep training a week ago today. When we first started, Bella would cry and scream for what seemed like forever. It really does break your heart hearing your baby cry like that, but whereas before I was so critical of the 'Let them Cry' method, I've now become an advocate. It's hard to hear them cry, yes, but the results are truly impressive and beneficial to both mother and baby. While your baby gets her twelve hours of much needed sleep at night, you as a mother are getting much needed 'me time!' Tell me, when was the last time you got more than a couple minutes of uninterrupted time on your comp? Not your phone, but an actual computer that requires two hands to type? Only a week after starting sleep training, I am able to actually enjoy an evening that isn't centered around my daughter. Don't get me wrong, I adore time with my daughter, but we must admit, we new mothers do tend to forget ourselves for the sake of our little babies and if it is not our babies we're attending to, then it is our husbands or our jobs. Before we know it, months have gone by. Our children are blossoming, our husbands are bragging about how easy child rearing is and we look like zombies. We have become so sleep deprived and so "me-time" deprived that out of the blue we are finding ourselves crying, upset and/or grumping at our oblivious husbands! Sound familiar? Take a deep breath, decide on a start date (preferably a long weekend) and try this sleep training thing. Trust me, it works. It can take a while if your baby is a light sleeper like my little munchkin, but you do see results within days.
So what exactly have the results been on my side? As I said above, it has been exactly one week since we started sleep training our daughter. 99% of the sleep training has fallen on me since my husband juggles both a full time job and night classes. Bella still hasn't gotten to that magical point where she sleeps twelve hours straight, but we have seen dramatic improvement. She is now able to sleep on her own, get through the night without breastfeeding or being picked up and is able to self-sooth. She still wakes up and cries, especially between one and six, but the length of time that she cries is getting shorter. Whereas in the beginning she would cry (and scream) for up to 30 minutes, now she'll cry for 30 seconds to a minute before settling down on her own. At times, I'll have to go in to sooth her with my voice and some caresses on her tummy or back, but usually she won't even open her eyes and will plop back down on her Teddy bear and drift off to dream land again.
I started Bella's sleep training by having her Pack n' Play (something like this) in our room. I'd 'camp out' on a mattress next to her pen so that I could immediately provide her with comfort, not by breastfeeding or picking her up, but with my voice and caresses. About five days later, I moved Bella into her own bedroom. I kept her in the Pack n' Play, as opposed to her crib because I found that she kept standing up to scream and protest. Then, she'd plop down so suddenly that it made me concerned about her hitting her head. Having her in her own room keeps me from inadvertently disturbing her slumber as I go about my evening tasks and routines, while it keeps her from waking me up every time she turns, cries in her sleep, etc I do have a baby monitor so that I can be there for her if she really can't back to sleep on her own, or gets scared for any reason. One piece of advice that has really helped both her and I, by the way, is not to rush to her crib side every time she cries. It was hard at first, but I've learned that nine times out of ten, she'll fall asleep on her own in less than a couple minutes. If I rush in, my presence makes her upset because I'm not holding or nursing her and then she ends up staying awake and crying for much longer.
It's now midnight and guess what, Bella is still sleeping. Let's see how long she sleeps tonight. For now though, I'm off to slip into bed. Every night of this sleep training challenge, I think to myself, "maybe tonight will be the first night when both she and I sleep till morning without any nighttime cries!" Will let you know when that actually happens. :)
So what exactly have the results been on my side? As I said above, it has been exactly one week since we started sleep training our daughter. 99% of the sleep training has fallen on me since my husband juggles both a full time job and night classes. Bella still hasn't gotten to that magical point where she sleeps twelve hours straight, but we have seen dramatic improvement. She is now able to sleep on her own, get through the night without breastfeeding or being picked up and is able to self-sooth. She still wakes up and cries, especially between one and six, but the length of time that she cries is getting shorter. Whereas in the beginning she would cry (and scream) for up to 30 minutes, now she'll cry for 30 seconds to a minute before settling down on her own. At times, I'll have to go in to sooth her with my voice and some caresses on her tummy or back, but usually she won't even open her eyes and will plop back down on her Teddy bear and drift off to dream land again.
I started Bella's sleep training by having her Pack n' Play (something like this) in our room. I'd 'camp out' on a mattress next to her pen so that I could immediately provide her with comfort, not by breastfeeding or picking her up, but with my voice and caresses. About five days later, I moved Bella into her own bedroom. I kept her in the Pack n' Play, as opposed to her crib because I found that she kept standing up to scream and protest. Then, she'd plop down so suddenly that it made me concerned about her hitting her head. Having her in her own room keeps me from inadvertently disturbing her slumber as I go about my evening tasks and routines, while it keeps her from waking me up every time she turns, cries in her sleep, etc I do have a baby monitor so that I can be there for her if she really can't back to sleep on her own, or gets scared for any reason. One piece of advice that has really helped both her and I, by the way, is not to rush to her crib side every time she cries. It was hard at first, but I've learned that nine times out of ten, she'll fall asleep on her own in less than a couple minutes. If I rush in, my presence makes her upset because I'm not holding or nursing her and then she ends up staying awake and crying for much longer.
It's now midnight and guess what, Bella is still sleeping. Let's see how long she sleeps tonight. For now though, I'm off to slip into bed. Every night of this sleep training challenge, I think to myself, "maybe tonight will be the first night when both she and I sleep till morning without any nighttime cries!" Will let you know when that actually happens. :)
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