Sleep Training, Day 1
On my husband’s desperate insistence, I started sleep training our 10 month old daughter today. We successfully weened her off the 2am bottle last month, but she is still not falling asleep independently - neither for nap or at night - and she’s regularly waking up in the middle of the night.
What prompted the immediate need for sleep training was that Allison decided that midnight to 4:30am would be a perfect time to be awake last night. My husband, Tim, and I passed her back and forth after our dutiful hour was finished, and when my husband took on his second hour, he sleeplessly said with utmost frustration, “why isn’t she sleep trained? we need to let her cry. she’s not too young.” And he’s right. But I’ve been reluctant to take the plunge. Until today…
It’s a holiday, and our regular activities are cancelled; so today seemed like a perfect day to begin. I started with her afternoon nap. Here are the results:
Synopsis: Fail.
Longer version: I let her cry for about 45 minutes, when I went into check on her. She had an enormous poop, and her face was slimy with tears and snot. Therefore, I caved and rocked her to sleep. Typically, I would have caved much earlier, but I spent the 45 minutes reading the ‘6-12 month’ chapter of “Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child” by Marc Weissbluth MD. A really amazing book, that’s helped diagnose and solve annoying and unhealthy sleep issues with both my girls. The chapter kept reinforcing my belief that I shouldn’t give up on letting her cry, that eventually she will learn to self soothe and most importantly that crying isn’t an unhealthy reaction to learning independence. Regardless, I’m back to square one, and will work on this some more tonight with the emotional support of husband.
