Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Sleep Training - Day 2

Well, hopefully I won't have to write about this much longer, because the second day went SO much better than the first!!! I was actually prepared for it to be worse before it got better, but it really was much better. I do have to mention that the goal for us right now is a nap for at least an hour for her daytime "designated" nap times.

The night before, I put her down to sleep at 8:50. I was hoping that she would sleep through the night again, and she almost did, but not quite!

3:10am - woke up and fussed. I let her fuss for 5 minutes before I went in, just to make sure she really was awake.
3:15am-3:40am - Fed. Put her back in bed where she fussed for a minute but then fell right asleep.
7:20am - woke up happy!!!
7:30am - Fed
9:00am - Put in crib. She fussed for a minute, but then fell asleep!!!
10:10am - woke up - she actually slept for an hour! Even though the "designated" nap time wasn't over, I took her out of the crib since she slept for an hour.
10:30am - Fed
12:00pm - put in crib. No fussing! She fell right asleep!
12:40pm - woke up crying. Only a 40 minute nap, so I left her there to cry
1:00pm - I got a bit lax here, because she was supposed to be in bed until 1:30, but I picked her up after crying for 20 minutes. At least she took a small nap without fussing!
1:30pm - Fed
3:00pm - put in crib. Cried for 7 minutes before falling asleep.
3:37pm - crying. Only a 30 minute nap this time...
4:00pm - I picked her up again after crying for 20 minutes. Oops
4:30pm - Fed
6:00pm - put in crib. Fussed for a few minutes before falling asleep
6:35pm - woke up crying. Looks like she is loving the 30-40 minute naps today!
7:05pm - picked her up out of crib
7:30pm - Fed
8:50pm - put in crib for bed, fell right asleep!
12:15am - woke up - I let her fuss for 5 minutes before going in
12:20am - fed
12:40am - put back down in crib - fell right asleep

I was hoping for no more 12am/1am wake times, but she had one here. Hopefully she'll completely drop those soon!

There still was some crying, but I am SO happy that she basically fell asleep for each nap time. She really is a smart girl, and I'm sure she's catching on to this routine. Now if I could just get her to sleep for more than half an hour for naps!

5 comments:

TheKeilShpeel said...

Another thing that has always helped me is getting the baby out of your room. You don't wake each other up. We just kicked Andrew out and can I say, it's heavenly. I feel so much more rested. I did with Kyle after 1 week..
I totally believe in at a point, letting a baby cry it out.. you aren't a bad mommy. When we moved down to Cali Kyle was 4 months and still not sleeping through the night so I did one night and ever since he's been a great sleeper at night. Good luck with it. :)

Ryley @ That's My Family! said...

Wow.. great job! I know a lot of people that totally love that book. We are doing a version of that and have been for a few months. it works wonderfully.
The only other advise I can give is an early bed time. Early bed time is our only salvation!!! Seriously..
We have a night time routine we do every night and he is in bed by 7 or 7:30 and doesnt wake up till 7:30 or 8.. (but keeping him up later DOES NOT mean he'll sleep later.. we've tried)
We have a few habits we really want to break too.. he eats to sleep for every nap and night time and we also rock him to sleep. We need to stop that.
We need to do like feeding time, play time then nap time..
ughh.. these things are no fun! :)

Cassie said...

It sounds like you really have her in a good schedule. And look at that -- she fell right asleep when you put her down at night. That's awesome!! Hopefully the naps will gradually start getting longer. Andrew now naps for 1.5 hours twice a day, but he used to be a cat-napper like your Abbi. So there is hope!

Like Ryley, I love an early bedtime. Andrew goes to bed at 7:30 every night, which provides Daddy and I with some much-needed time together.

Abby said...

I don't know anything about methods because I decided to do things how I wanted to, which included letting C. sleep on his belly during the day when I could watch him. I held off on this at night until he was 3 months old and I had to go back to work. That is when he slept though the night for the first time and I never hesitated to let him sleep that way again.

Daytime naps were also a struggle, but when I talked to his pediatrician about it she told me that babies figure out their nighttime sleeping before their daytime sleeping. That made sense to me so I covered his window with foil (a trick I got from Dooce when her first one was wee). It worked.

I also read on Moxie that some babies calm down by crying it out and some only rile themselves up more. C. tends to get more excited and upset as he cries so I don't let him do it, but I have nothing against it and would do it if he had a different personality.

He's been sleeping in his crib since he was 3 months old and I don't regret it at all. He loves his bed and goes right down to nap every morning at 11 for 2 or 3 hours. I keep a blanket and his bear lovey in there that are only for sleepy time, and he will never be put in there for time outs. I don't want him to associate sleeping with negativity.

Abbi is gorgeous and divine and obviously smart so everything will turn out fine as long as you're patient. I really think that's key, but I understand it's hard to be patient when you're sleep-deprived! Some days aren't that good - teething threw him for a loop a few nights - but on the day following those rough nights I took a nap when he did. Sleep does wonders for your soul. Ha.

This is a book, but I'm so glad to see you doing what works for you guys and not what other people tell you. Babies are smart but they can only learn what we teach them, and you're doing a great job!

Abby said...

And ditto to everybody above:

Dinner. Playtime. Bathtime. Book. Bottle. Bed. All by 7 p.m. every night!