Apparently, getting your children on a sleep schedule is supposed to be good for them…so we’ve been told by a pediatric sleep specialist…see how we tried…and failed miserably…in the long run.
First of all..y’all.. I am TIRED!
Here’s the run down of how it all WENT down last night!
At 7:45pm, we took our shower-bath (forever funny to me. lololol) and post-cleaning, instead of moisturizing in mommy and daddy’s bed like we normally do, we did that in Squally’s bed. She wasn’t super complaint to the switch, but overall it was pretty well accepted.
8:20pm: We read a couple of books and nursed in a super comfy glove like chair next to her toddler bed and then the torture began.
8:30pm: I put her in her bed on her back and she got up. We did this over and over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER. I was going to count, but I got lazy and stopped because she got out of her bed that many times. She wanted to sit in the chair with mommy and play with mommy and I’m not supposed to engage her at all, per instructions listed in the previous post given by the specialist. THIS was hard. She was trying to make eye contact with me and crying and screaming and my heart is ACHING and she’s continually getting out of the bed and trying to get in the chair with me and I just kiss her and lay her back down in her bed.
So I turned on a Pandora baby lullaby station to lighten the mood, which helped minimally, but ultimately she just wanted to cuddle with her mommy like she has done for every night of her life. ?
Around 9pm, I decided to nurse her again to help calm her down a little; it did help, but of course its effects were temporary and disappeared as soon as I laid her back down in her bed.
A couple of times when she got out of bed I let her roam her room and she would go and get back in her bed when she was done. She was still upset, she was calmer.
By 9:30, she had worn herself out between the tears and temper tantrums. At about 9:35, she started digging in her nose super aggressively and fell asleep. It was the strangest thing ever and I had to try REALLY hard not to laugh.
She stayed asleep in and her bed until around 11pm when she first stirred; I sent her daddy in to soothe her and she went back to sleep without much fuss.
She woke up crying again at around 12:30 and I sent daddy again, but after about 10 minutes of minimal success, I went and breastfed her and tried to put her back down and she was not happy about it. I laid next to her on her bed until we both fell asleep. I fell out of her bed with a loud thud around 1:15am. She didn’t wake up, so I didn’t worry about it.
She stayed in her bed alone in her room until about 3am when she got up quietly and came into our room and whined a little. Tired and ready to sleep, I just put her in the bed with us and we all went to bed for good. haha.
Summary:
- She went down at 9:30pm
- Stayed in her bed with some assistance until 3am
- she slept in our bed until 8:30am, when she woke up fully refreshed!
- So she slept almost 11 hours!
Anywhere from 9-11 hours is her normal amount of night time sleep- so no increases yet, BUT she did sleep in her own bed for about half of her night; so that is indeed progress! Most babies around her age only need 10-12 hours of nightime rest and 1-2 hours of a daytime nap. Lariah’s nap today was SUPER short since she has Yoga at 1:15pm on Wednesdays (which is where we are now as I’m writing this).
We will update you all again tomorrow on whatever adventures we encounter tonight!
Thank you for your positive thoughts and vibes that you all sent us yesterday and please continue to do so as we try again tonight!
I was super proud of Squally and myself because she unwillingly went to bed for ME. That’s saying a lot since she’s super attached to mommy.
Our goal for tonight is to keep her in her own bed for 1-2 more hours than last night! So wish us luck!!
