Well, it's been about a week of working on the sleep training. I just got "the no-cry sleep solution" in the mail and have been reading through it. Combined with the advice nurse I think I may be on my way to a better night's sleep.
After the first night with the bottle of water, Charlotte completely refused to even try to suck on the bottle. The second night was a battle of wills. It was my will for her to go back to sleep without nursing, it was her will to prove to me that she wanted things her way by screaming as loudly as she could. Fortunately sleep training has started to take. I had set her bedtime for 9:30 and had started a routine. Then I read in the no-cry book that babies need to be in bed much earlier - like 7pm - and that my almost 6-month-old needs around 11 hours of sleep each night and 3-4 hours between 2 naps during the day.
To this I gave a dropped jaw "wha?! that much?!" I had no idea. The funny thing was that in the same paragraph the author says that she was putting her baby to bed around 9:30 and her baby started sleeping longer when she set and earlier bed time. It's like she knows me.
Charlotte almost always takes a long nap around 7. I don't know how it didn't occur to me that I should just put her to bed! So tonight when she started to get red eyed and sleepy I put her to bed. That was around 8. I fed her again at 10:30 and she's still asleep even now as I type.
Now that I've started to get a handle on the night-time sleeping thing, the next challenge is going to be the naps. So far Charlottes naps have been pretty short and at the mercy of my schedule. She sleeps in the car if I've been driving long enough and she always wakes up when I take her seat out of the car. If I'm home, she usually sleeps around noon but never more than half an hour. Other than in her carseat, she never naps without being held and she certainly doesn't get 3-4 hours of sleep each day. So now I have my work cut out for me. I need to figure out how to keep her asleep during the day. Considering how inconsistent my daily routines are this is going to be a tough one to figure out.
Yeah, we continue to have daytime sleep issues with Liam, but I do agree that (somewhat paradoxically) the earlier bedtime does lead to a more consistent sleep pattern for him at night. We try to put him down between 7:00 and 8:00 and for the last week or so—knock on wood—he's slept through till 7:00 or 8:00 AM! Can You Friggin' Believe It?????? Let me tell you, my boobs felt like angry cantaloupes by morning. Ouch. But, the sleep is so worth it.
ReplyDeleteDaytime? It's a whole other story. He still only sleeps in my arms and doesn't really let me put him down. I hope that he will start to be able to nap alone during the day but he definitely does NOT get 3-4 hours of daytime sleep! Ha. Maybe, like, an hour. Total. So, take each day as it comes and don't beat yourself up too much. That's my motto, anyway.