S is now 18 months old & we desperately NEED her to be able to put herself to sleep...yes, we still rock her to sleep for naps & night time. Kill me now...so many hours of rocking her to sleep, I don't even want to think about it. Here's a little background as to how we got here...S was colicky from week 2 to month 4, really bad colicky. And she had acid reflux, so to get the little one to stop screaming we let her fall asleep in her swing quite often. At month 4 we moved, and with all the transition didn't think it was a good time to change her sleep routine either. Plus, we maybe didn't have a crib for a little while. Finally around month 5 or so we moved her to the crib, but she would only go to sleep after being rocked (same motion as the swing) and sometimes only on her tummy. Then we would carefully put her in her crib & leave. She was still waking up every 2 hours (thanks to the jaundice she had from day 1-day 14 or her little life, we had to wake her every 2 hours to eat, so she got used to that). For our sanity & to get some sleep ourselves, and not really knowing how to fix things - we'd take turns going in to rock her back to sleep. At month 9 enough was enough. With a little advice & motivating story of success from my friend Shauna, we got her to sleep through the night. Hallelujah!
We continued the rocking because it worked - she'd usually be asleep within 5 minutes & we didn't mind so much. If only I knew then what I know now...we trained her to need us to fall asleep, she cannot do it on her own. For healthy development, she needs to know how. And for our sanity, we need her to know how. So...that brings us to where we are. The rocking isn't working anymore. Last night it took Ry 90 minutes to get the bug to bed, she just wouldn't relax, very wiggly.
Now it's time for the change, more sleep training, and I think we can do it. We've read everything we possibly can & have come up with a solution that hopefully will work for us & our willfull child - thanks Supernanny (for writing about it in your book) and thanks dadjam.com for reading the book, implementing the technique, and then writing about the success. So here we go, tonight's the night - wish us luck!
Have you had similar sleep issues with your toddler? Have any great tips to share?
5 comments:
i'm just staring at the screen. screen > elle > screen > elle. YIKES! SLEEP? I MISS YOU!
i'm taking mental notes to not create habits that could be troublesome someday! it's so hard though to know what to continue and to break. i feel for you, and i'm WAY new at this mommy thing. i'll pray for you bados- good luck! you'll be great:)
All our kids developed great lung capacity when they learned that bed time was BED TIME :)
Oh my heck, story of my life. I'm so glad we're not alone. Our little dilemma started in February when she got sick, and we had to come in and give her medicine at night, and I'd rub her back till she fell asleep. After she was better, she was used to me being in there, and because of some noise-sensative neighbors, I didn't feel like I could just let her cry it out. (I hate apartments.) Ever since then we have had to help her get to sleep---and 45 minutes is the MINIMUM amount of time it takes. But now it has become a big joke to her, and she kicks around, and plays--just to make us mad. But I don't feel like I can just leave the room and let her cry it out. She often wakes with night terrors (brought on by the bad sleep routine??) Naptime is horrible. The ONLY way she will fall asleep is in the car. And that's really fun carrying her back upstairs with a pregnant belly. And when she wakes up she is hysterical and stays grumpy for like an hour. So if your little trick works, PLEASE TELL ME!! We will try anything!
Oh Marie...that is the worst!! Apartments are bad that way - hate to disturb the neighbors. I will let you know for sure.
that's so funny, because now i really love bed time.
there needs to be a secrets of mommy-ness book/blog or something so you can write down what works and what doesn't so the rest of us can benefit when we have kids :)
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