Learning to sleep

Sleep training.  Not fun.

So as you can guess from my name i have a child.  A beautiful baby daughter actually.  Baby A is fantastic and amazing and we waited long and hard for her to come along.  But i will get into that another time.

She is 7.5 months old and since she was very little has had some issues with sleep.  Not major issues as once she turned 3.5 months old she started sleeping through the night.

8-9 hours people. it was fantastic.

And we didn’t do anything special, she is not a wonder baby and we are not wonder parents, it just kinda happened.

However for her naps she couldn’t fall asleep on her own and wouldn’t let me put her down, so that meant me holding her in my arms to sleep 5 – 6 times a day for 30 – 60 minutes at a time.  craziness.

She is starting day care in August (don’t even get me started or my laptop will burn out from the tears) so i figured it was good to teach her how to have naps in her own crib.

So far she has done AMAZING!! like super amazing.  We enlisted the help of a sleep doula who is basically a baby whisperer that emails and calls you with techniques to try and offers moral support.  In some ways i feel it was a waste of money because from the first day following her advice A has slept through the night for 12 hours.  The reason i feel it is a waste of money is if i had just had the balls to try and put her down earlier this might have happened without the doula, but what can you do? She also instructed me on A’s food patterns and when to feed her, and what (not specifically, but food vs bottle etc).

The only problem we are still having is naps.  A goes down fine for them, but sometimes won’t nap the whole hour.  Apparently if this happens we are supposed to “train” her to sleep longer.  that is horrible.  I can barely stand it, but apparently it will get better soon.  I certainly hope so! (NOTE - And it did in just a week or so.  No tears at all now!).

She does seem more rested and honestly having her in bed by 7:30 every night is great.  I can get stuff done and have time and energy to spend with my husband.

I almost forgot what he looked like.

Moral of the story: don’t wait.  If you think your child is ready i would suggest giving them a try at sleep training.  I wish i had done it sooner (but who knows if she would have been ready then). It is amazing the difference we have seen in a week!  And if you are not comfortable going it on your own then hire some help. It isn’t that expensive and it is an investment in your future and your sanity.

(Originally posted on wittymum.wordpress.com on April 24/12)