Sleeping like a baby?

Whoever coined the term "sleeping like a baby" probably didn't have a baby.

Baby Bear's night time sleep has widely improved from last week. Hallelujah! We started to sleep train using what I knew about the Ferber method 3 nights ago. We assessed that there are several of things that we would like to work on with regards to Baby Bear's sleep.

1. She wakes up excessively at night (6-8 times or more). This just began in the last month.
   
2. She often needs help getting to sleep. She is either rocked or nursed.
   
3. She does not like to sleep in her crib, she prefers to sleep in our bed. I can get her down in the crib if she is almost asleep, but after she wakes up the first time at night she will not go back down in her crib.
4. She takes very short naps and has a hard time going down for a nap without being nursed (at least that is the case when she is home with me, not when she is in daycare).

Since sleep deprivation was the biggest issue at this point in time, we decided that we would work on decreasing her night wakings first and later to work on the other issues. It was more important to me to get sleep for both of us. I also thought it would be easier to work on one thing at a time. I don't need her to sleep through the night and that was not our goal, we wanted to reduce the number of times that she woke up at night to 2.

I had been nursing her every time that she woke up thinking that she was hungry. But I realize now that Baby Bear does not need to eat every hour or every two hours. I know that she can go at least 4 hours between meals and I know she can actually go longer. So with that as my gauge, I would nurse her at times that were reasonable and not at the other times. So with those goals in mind, we went on our way to sleep training.

Night one
Baby Bear went down to sleep as usual at 7pm and after about an hour she began to cry. We used Ferber's method. She cried before going in to soothe her at the following intervals: 3 mins, 5 mins, 10 min, and 10 mins. After close to 30 minutes of crying, we finally caved in. Since I know she didn't need to be fed, Papa Bear went in to pick her up and soothe her. He said that she immediately buried her head in his chest and fell asleep. He tried to put her down in the crib but then she would cry, he put her down on our bed and laid next to her until she fell asleep. She slept in the bed the rest of the night.

That night, I actually went to sleep on the couch since I was exhausted and sick. Papa Bear slept with her. She woke up at midnight and he soothed her to sleep. I must have been exhausted since I didn't hear her that first time. I actually got to sleep for a 3-4 hour span before she woke up again at about 2:30am. I heard her on the monitor and nursed her and then slept again until about 5am. Nursed again. Woke at 6am and she slept in until 8am.

It was tough to hear her cry and every time I went in to soothe her, her cries were worse. I think it make it worse when I go in to tell her she is okay. But she slept considerable better than last week, even though we caved in. She was only up 5 times, which was an improvement. I also learned that she could go 4 hours without nursing, actually she was able to go almost 7 hours. So that reinforced that 4 hours was a reasonable goal.

Night two
Baby Bear went down to sleep as usual in her crib at 7pm and again after an hour she began to cry. I went into soothe her at 5 mins. After another 10 min., Papa Bear didn't want to go any further and went in to pick her up and again he put her down on our bed and laid down with her until she fell asleep. She slept with us the rest of the night. She woke at 12:30am and I rocked her but did not nurse her since I knew from the night before that she did not need to nurse. She woke up at about 3am to nurse, then she was up at 5am and I rocked her back to sleep. She was up at 6:30am and I nursed her and she was up for the day.

She was up 4 times. It was getting better.

Night three
I put Baby Bear down to sleep as usual at 7pm and put her in her crib. This time she did not wake up an hour after she was put down. She slept until 10pm. We let her cry for 10 minutes and then Papa Bear went in to soothe her and put her down in our bed. (Papa Bear is not so good with letting her cry). She was up at 12:30am, 3am, and 6:30am.

We are still at the 4 times in a night. But she is learning that she does not need to nurse all those times. We will see how it goes tonight. I feel things are going much better and maybe because I am recovering from my cold I am feeling a little more rested. Although, I still long for the night where I can sleep for longer than 4 hours. We will keep at it and I know that time will come. For now, sleep training is going pretty well. I have been told that consistency is the key. I will keep on, it isn't always easy, but then again nothing about parenting is really that easy anyways.

By the book
I was just able to read parts of Ferber's book yesterday and although I started before reading the book I was very happy to learn that what we were doing by reducing the number of feedings at night is along with what he discusses in the book. He suggests to gradually replace feedings with another type of parental intervention, like rocking to sleep. After the association with feeding is gone, you can start teaching the child to fall asleep on her own. That was what I had been doing when she would wake up and it was not time to nurse. I am glad to have some reassurance that we are working in the right direction.

I feel like what we are doing is working for us. It may be going slowly, but we have seen improvement. And since consistency is key, we just need to give it more time. If I can reduce night waking to 2 times, then maybe we can eventually get it down to only 1 time and then none. After we get this down, then maybe we can work on the other sleep issues. One thing at a time. This parenting thing is no easy task and it helps me to break things down into more manageable pieces.

Maybe in time, I will be sleeping like a baby!!!