a well rested family

My beautiful girl is sleeping soundly as I sit here and type.  She is sleeping soundly - not in my arms, not in my husbands arms, not in our bed, and not on the couch beside me.  She's sleeping in her crib.  AND she's been sleeping there for over three hours.  AND I haven't gone to soothe her once.  AND she hasn't cried more than ten minutes.  AND it's nighttime.

If you know my family, and K's sleeping habits, you are probably totally amazed with the above statements.

My baby is now sleeping in her own crib.  I still can't believe it. 

We spent the first part of parenthood having Kennedy sleep in a bassinet beside our bed, and then switched to put her in the playpen so she was still close by.  In the early days, getting her to sleep was tough.  We spent hours bouncing on our exercise ball, walking around the house, nursing, shushing, and laying her down ever so carefully and praying that she didn't wake.  It would last for a short time until she was back up and needing to go through the process again.  In the early days, I didn't mind.  I knew this was normal.  I knew that her frequent awakenings were perfectly normal, and helped keep her safe (preventing SIDS).

When she was about 15 weeks old, we decided it was time for her to move out of our room and into her crib.  She was sleeping much better and for a couple of weeks, this situation worked amazingly.   Then, after being teased with full nights of sleep - she started waking up again.  It was happening a lot.  Dragging my butt (or the hubby's butt) out of bed to go soothe, rock, or nurse her back to sleep started getting exhausting.  She was finally taking a soother (which worked wonders for driving in the car - a whole other post) but would spit it out and wail until it was returned to her whimpering lips.  We got into a new routine where we would put her to sleep in her crib, and when she woke in the night we would then bring her into bed with us.  It was much easier to soothe and nurse her back to sleep when my feet didn't have to hit the floor, my eyes didn't have to open, and my head didn't even have to lift of the pillow.  She was happy.  She was sleeping better.  We were happy.  We were sleeping better.  It worked.

For awhile.

Then we got into another bad habit.  We knew that it wasn't ideal, but we just didn't know what else to do.  Kennedy was waking up a lot.  It was so hard to put her to sleep at night, we'd let her fall asleep in our arms in the early evening and then would hold her or let her sleep beside us on the couch as we waited for the time that we would go to bed.  Then, we'd carry her upstairs to our bed and all go to sleep together.  That is, until she woke up.  And woke up again, and again, and again.  Most times we were so quick at soothing her, she would go back to sleep within seconds.  But we were waking up.  The game was getting old, and it was getting old fast.  But we still didn't know what to do.

I did a lot of reading online and talked to other mothers for advice.  Everybody had suggestions, but of course, none of it worked.  We had casually tried the cry it out (CIO) method twice before, but had gone to soothe Kennedy before she settled herself as it was so heartbreaking to listen to her cry.  The CIO method was something that I just didn't agree with.  It didn't sit well with me.  It didn't feel right.  The idea of it broke my heart, but we were getting to the point where we were willing to try it again.  I am fortunate to have such a supportive husband, so after many lengthy conversations, we decided to give it a shot.  We had to try.

Night one was tough.  She cried, and cried and when we thought she had settled, we'd sneak to the door where she would see or hear us, and the crying would start again.  It was the toughest thing to do, but we stuck to it, and she finally fell asleep.  It was the longest 50 minutes ever.  But she slept.  And she slept well.  She wasn't waking up a bazillion times in the night like she had the few weeks before.  We decided to try it again - for naps and for bedtime, and let me tell you - we are having great success.

Sometimes she goes to bed and cries for five or ten minutes.  Other times, she doesn't cry at all. She  sleeps in her own crib all night (with me getting up to nurse her once), and we have a happy girl smiling up at us when we go in to get her as she lays cooing and talking to herself in the morning. 

Amazingly, it worked.

The sense of relief I have is amazing.  I was hesitant to post this blog as I feared that I would jinx myself, but I think we are on the road to success.  We have purchased a video monitor so we can see her without having to go into her room.  It is amazing how long we sit looking at that screen, watching her sleep so soundly (and at times watching her cry --- which is the hardest thing to do).



It's working for us for now.  We'll see what happens in another few weeks.