Most of you know that I haven’t had the best luck with sleep these last few months. For the first 3.5 months, Bobae was up almost every hour-2 hours in the night. In the evening she would get SO cranky. It’s funny.. it took us quite a while to actually realize that she was so cranky because she wanted to go to bed! oops! Sorry baby. We would try to start bedtime at 7:30.  She would have a bath first.  Bobae LOVES the bath. No matter how cranky, or upset she is in the evening, she begins to calm down when I take off her clothes, and is absolutely ecstatic by the time she gets into the bath tub.  She splashes around, and mommy and daddy get her squeaky clean.  Then we would go into our bedroom, play on the bed a little, get lotion on, and clean PJs.  Then I would rock her to sleep and watch Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman on the lap top for a couple of hours until she was finally in a deep sleep :p.  Then when her limbs were limp I would VERY CAREFULLY lay her in her co-sleeper, which was between Charles and I on our bed.  Usually she would wake up immediately, and I would try a few more times until she stayed asleep.  After that I would wake up with her every couple of hours and nurse her back to sleep.  In the day time, I would have to nurse her and rock her for her naps.  I had NO free time.  I couldn’t barely get lunch. She wouldn’t play alone, or sit in the swing or lay on the floor with toys. I had to hold her 24/7.

We started sleep training her abotu a week ago, and things are starting to look up.  A friend of mine emailed me an ebook called “The Sleep Sense Program”.  I am not an advocate for the cry-it-out method AT all, but realized I would have to let her cry a little bit so she can break the association of only being able to sleep if Mommy  nursed her.  So We moved her to her own room and sat beside her crib until she fell asleep.  The first night, she cried for about 45 minutes or so, and slept for thirty, cried for 30 more, then slept for about 4 or 5 hours! WOW!  The next couple of nights were less crying, more sleeping. YAY! AND: For the first time in 3.5 months, my husband and I could spend time together in the evening and sleep in our own bed!  Before we couldn’t move during the night for fear or waking her up (and because there was no space with the co-sleeper wedged between us. We had to sleep on our sides.  

After a few days, she started waking up every two hours again at night.  We finally realized maybe she was waking up because she was thirsty. We had been keeping glasses of water beside our bed those two nights that she woke up a lot because we were parched!  We put the humidifier in her room and she slept almost 12 hours! (waking up twice to eat quick and go back asleep).

Nap time is harder. When I put her in her crib for a nap, she gets hysterical.  I’ve started letting her nap in the swing which for me is a HUGE improvement!!! Before she only napped in my arms, now i have her whole nap time to do anything I need to do!  It’s like we are a whole different family now. 

She has learned now that she doesn’t NEED mommy to rock and nurse her to sleep, so she is a lot more comfortable going to sleep in her bed on her own, with a lot less crying!  We have moved the chair from beside her bed, to the middle of the room.  If she cries, we go to her bed and stroke her face, and say “It’s ok, Mommy and Daddy are here”.  If she is particularly fussy we take 20 min shifts sitting in the room until she’s deep asleep.  We make sure that before bed we do her routine exactly the same each night so she knows to expect bed at the end.  At 7:00 she has a bath, gets lotion and PJs, reads a book with daddy, has a snack with Mommy (VERY IMPORTANT that she doesn’t fall asleep while eating before bed or in the middle of the night), has a burp, gets a kiss and a snuggle, and is placed in bed AWAKE.  We tell her it’s “night night time”, so she knows that it’s bed time :) She moves around for a few minutes, and fusses a bit then falls asleep.  When she wakes up in the night to eat, she goes right back to sleep once she’s in bed.  It’s a little hard to keep her awake, but i talk to her and tickle her belly, and make funny noises to keep her awake before putting her back in bed.

I love my sleeping (and non sleeping) baby <3