So today I decided that Abby was old enough to learn to put herself to sleep in her crib without my help. She got sleepy and fussy so I laid her down in her crib. I went into the check on her after 5 minutes then 10 minutes and so on. She cried the entire time and my patting her back and rubbing her cheeks did not calm her down much! So she cried for an entire 1 hour and 50 minutes. By then it was time for her to eat again. I picked her up and within 7 minutes of feeding her she was out! I talked to my sister Wendy today and she said it gets easier over time and Abby will learn to go to sleep after shorter and shorter increments of crying. So I have some questions for all you mothers out there! Did you let your children cry themselves to sleep and if so what methods worked?! Share your stories with me!
On a different note, here is a picture of Abby and Cousin Gavin at Grandma and Grandpa's House in San Diego. I was able to hangout with my sister Stacy and her boys almost every day! It was so fun! Gavin just loved Abby and kept wanting to "pet" her hair. Here Gavin and Abby are talking back and forth with each other!
3 comments:
As far as the night time routine goes, my theory was you have to do something different so that the baby knows the difference between going to bed at night and sleeping during other times of the day. We would swaddle her in this thing called a "miracle blanket" at night. We would only do this at night so that she knew it was part of the bedtime routine. That blanket did work miracles for us. Not only did she not fuss much at night but she also slept for 8+ hours starting at 2 1/2 months. I also had a bottle of pumped milk that either Craig or I would give her before putting her to bed at night. That way she knew the difference between the night time feeding versus being fed any other part of the day when I would nurse her. (Also, on a side note it also worked well because she was able to take both a bottle and nurse. This also made it nice for me because I didn't feel like I had to be tied down to feeding my baby--I had other options.) Anyway, sorry this is so long winded but that is what worked for us.
I tried with Aidan and had the same problem you did, except he never went to sleep at shorter increments, they got longer! He'd get so sad and angry that he'd vomit or mess his diaper. It did not work for us. I found a book called "The Baby Whisperer" that I absolutely love and have used with my babies ever since. She does not recommend leaving a baby to cry themselves to sleep, but does teach you how to teach your baby to put herself to sleep. It took some adjustment time, but was so worth it for us!
I did let Paige cry in her bed, doing the same thing you did and we only had 2 bad nights where she cried a long time, and then it was so much better. She'd still cry sometimes, but not for very long. But for us, we started when Paige was a little older than Abby is. We started around 6 months. Before that, she was never a terrible sleeper, but she went through a period when she wasn't sleeping well, and that's when we decided to try it. There are so many theories that people have about this stuff, hope you find something that works well for you.
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