Sleep Training

We have been doing Sleep Training for bedtime and naptime with help from The Sleep Sense Program. We decided to do this cold turkey instead of checking in on her every 15-20 minutes. She cries harder and gets more upset if we check in on her and she doesn't get picked up.

The first time we tried to just let her cry it out, before I read the Sleep Sense guidebook was really bad. She cried for about 15 minutes, threw up, so we changed her clothes and put her down again, then she cried another hour straight. After that she was quiet and partially sleeping, but she would whimper a few times every hour to half hour. It was really hard on me to hear her whimpering and crying for the next few hours. Finally at 3:30 AM, I heard her crying again, I was still awake in bed, unable to sleep, so I went and got her and she slept between Jason and I. She woke up with a cough the next morning so we gave her a break in sleep training. She slept with us the next couple nights.

A couple nights before we started sleep training again, she slept in our bed, but she wouldn't go to sleep for at least 2 hours after we got in bed so she kept me up past midnight. I couldn't handle this anymore. I needed her in her bed. I love having her sleep with us once in a while, but not all the time and not when she is going to play, wiggle, push herself all the way up to the headboard, and talk for two hours after Jason goes to sleep.

We started again, after I read the Sleep Sense guidebook, on March 22. I started in the daytime for her second nap. The first nap, she slept with me in my bed.

I want to remember these things and I want Luci to be able to read this when she is older and has kids of her own. Here is what we went through, I wrote out everything in a notebook.

You can skip past the details of the days and read on to the next paragraph if you want.

DAY 1


Nap 2

first day of crying for her nap

1 hour of crying
15 minutes of sleeping

Bedtime
1 hour of crying
10 hours of sleeping with one wake up that lasted ten minutes before she went back to sleep



DAY 2


Nap 1
1 hour 10 minutes of cried (she would cry, fall asleep for a few seconds, and wake up crying again)




Nap 1 attempt 2
40 minutes of crying and sleeping every other few seconds
20 minutes of sleeping




Nap 2

day 1- bedtime, she fell asleep on her tummy.
later on, i flipped her over to her back.

50 minutes of crying and sleeping every other few seconds
45 minutes of sleeping (YAY!)




Bedtime
30 minutes of crying
12 hours of sleeping (she was really tired so she slept in the next day)

DAY 3

Nap 1 
35 minutes of crying (crying and sleeping every other few seconds)
10 minutes of sleeping


Nap 2
15 minutes of sleeping in the car


Bedtime
25 minutes of straight crying
30 minutes of crying and sleeping every other few seconds
10 hours and 15 minutes of sleeping


DAY 4

day 3 bedtime

Nap 1
17 minutes of crying
41 minutes of sleeping


She took two more naps in the car since we had to go to Barstow for a doctor's appointment.


Bedtime
50 minutes of crying and sleeping every few seconds (i think she is testing us, but unable to stay awake)
11 hours of sleeping


DAY 5 


Nap 1
34 minutes of crying
25 minutes of sleeping


Forgot to write down nap 2


Bedtime

day 6 nap (today) with her foot hanging out of the crib slat

17 minutes of crying
10 hours of sleeping


DAY 6


Nap 1
30 minutes of crying
1 hour 30 minutes of sleeping


Nap 2
45 minutes of crying on and off
15 minutes or so of sleeping 


Bedtime
15 minutes of crying
SLEEPING (This is tonight.)



So her sleeping vs. crying is improving a little bit for naps and after 6 days, she is going to sleep faster for bedtime. It's still hard for me to listen to her cry for naps. For the first day or two I would sit in the room with her and tell her "it's nap time Luci", but it felt harder for her and for me so I stopped doing that. We leave the door open until she passes out. We let her sleep with a blanket now and she always cuddles up with it every night. In the daytime, she rolls around all over her crib and often passes out on her tummy. I just leave her like that, but I always check on her once she is quiet to make sure she isn't tangled up too much.

We used to get her to bed around 9 or 10 pm. Since we started sleep training, the first couple nights we got her in bed by 8:30 or 9PM, then after that we started getting her into her crib by 8pm. It's hard because Jason doesn't get home till 6PM or later and we usually try to eat dinner with her before her bath. Over the weekend, we ate dinner after we put her down.

I've got to get ready for bed now.

BTW: I'm on a different anti-depressant now and I'm much happier with this one. It is safe for breastfeeding and for the future if we decide to get pregnant ever again.