Today is the 6th month anniversary of Cora's life. I'd like to say it's gone so fast, but honestly it feels more like a year to me.
As a special half-birthday present to herself and to me, she decided to take two naps that were longer than 30 minutes. TWO. All I can say is that sleep (hers) is a miracle. I felt like a princess in one of the old Disney movies. I wanted to dance around the house singing in a very high falsetto voice as birds and woodland animals danced around me and landed on me smiling and chirping.
Upon reflection, I'm glad that didn't happen. I'm not a huge fan of birds or woodland animals and it would terrify me if they suddenly started landing on me and dancing around me. But still. You get the point...I was SO HAPPY. Even now as I write I have a huge smile on my face.
Most importantly Cora was happy too. I could tell the sleep made a difference to her. She could focus longer on toys she was playing with and she didn't cry or fuss as much. She was a different child.
Sleep scoreboard: she slept for almost 13 hours last night (until 8am), and then she slept for an hour and 15 minutes this morning, an hour and a half after lunch, and a 30 minute topper at 4pm. If she did this every day....I would LOVE being a stay at home mom. No one understands how killer a 30 minute napper is if they haven't had one. Ladies, you know who you are.
How did it happen? I have some ideas. And look, I KNOW all children are different. I also know that this may not repeat itself again tomorrow, or ever. But if it does, here's what I think went down...
Cry. It. Out.
I read recently that the baby's sleep brain is different for daytime and nighttime sleep. So even if you trained the baby to sleep through the night it might not work for daytime. I can confirm, it did not.
For some reason I had a much harder time embracing the CIO method for naps. Whenever I let her do it for even a little bit it felt wrong and painful. Her cry was miserable - I felt like she must be sick or in pain and I was ignoring her. And sometimes she would cry, sleep for two minutes, wake up and cry again for a couple more minutes, sleep a couple and repeat for 20 minutes. That was the longest I could do.
Yesterday I decided to do what Weissenbluth suggested and to put her down for an hour nap. I also decided no more putting her down asleep. I would read her a book, walk around and sing to her until she yawned and got sleepy, but not asleep at all. Then, when I put her down, if she cried the whole hour so be it. If she went to sleep and woke up and cried for the rest of the hour, so be it. She was doing an hour in the crib.
Scary.
So I did it. And she cried during both naps for about 35 and 25 minutes respectively before she fell asleep. One nap she did 45 minutes and the other one she did an hour. She didn't wake up crying for once.
Today I was scared and geared up for 35 minutes of crying again. This time for nap #1 I put her down and she cried for exactly 1 minute, then she slept. She awoke once or twice around the 30 minute mark and cried, but only for 30 seconds each time with her eyes closed and back to sleep. She slept for 1 hour 15. Nap #2 she didn't cry when I put her down. She played in her crib for 5 minutes and then fell asleep. Same restless crying around 30 minutes, but went back quickly and slept for 1 hour 30 minutes.
I know some people hate the cry it out method. But all I can say is that I tried EVERYTHING with this child and so far, I am a firm believer in it working. It worked for night sleep, and now I feel like it may work for daytime. I think we gave her too much attention and she couldn't let herself sleep because she wanted our attention. The only way to let her know we were making the break was to go cold turkey. And when she was able to finally stop fighting the sleep I feel like it was a relief to her.
Again, I may have to take this all back tomorrow, but right now it feels right. And for any other moms out there looking for options - you know your baby best - but it won't hurt to give this a try if you're at the breaking point. If Cora can repeat this miracle and we start getting naps....well, there simply are no words. Bring on the woodland animals.
As a special half-birthday present to herself and to me, she decided to take two naps that were longer than 30 minutes. TWO. All I can say is that sleep (hers) is a miracle. I felt like a princess in one of the old Disney movies. I wanted to dance around the house singing in a very high falsetto voice as birds and woodland animals danced around me and landed on me smiling and chirping.
Upon reflection, I'm glad that didn't happen. I'm not a huge fan of birds or woodland animals and it would terrify me if they suddenly started landing on me and dancing around me. But still. You get the point...I was SO HAPPY. Even now as I write I have a huge smile on my face.
Most importantly Cora was happy too. I could tell the sleep made a difference to her. She could focus longer on toys she was playing with and she didn't cry or fuss as much. She was a different child.
Sleep scoreboard: she slept for almost 13 hours last night (until 8am), and then she slept for an hour and 15 minutes this morning, an hour and a half after lunch, and a 30 minute topper at 4pm. If she did this every day....I would LOVE being a stay at home mom. No one understands how killer a 30 minute napper is if they haven't had one. Ladies, you know who you are.
How did it happen? I have some ideas. And look, I KNOW all children are different. I also know that this may not repeat itself again tomorrow, or ever. But if it does, here's what I think went down...
Cry. It. Out.
I read recently that the baby's sleep brain is different for daytime and nighttime sleep. So even if you trained the baby to sleep through the night it might not work for daytime. I can confirm, it did not.
For some reason I had a much harder time embracing the CIO method for naps. Whenever I let her do it for even a little bit it felt wrong and painful. Her cry was miserable - I felt like she must be sick or in pain and I was ignoring her. And sometimes she would cry, sleep for two minutes, wake up and cry again for a couple more minutes, sleep a couple and repeat for 20 minutes. That was the longest I could do.
Yesterday I decided to do what Weissenbluth suggested and to put her down for an hour nap. I also decided no more putting her down asleep. I would read her a book, walk around and sing to her until she yawned and got sleepy, but not asleep at all. Then, when I put her down, if she cried the whole hour so be it. If she went to sleep and woke up and cried for the rest of the hour, so be it. She was doing an hour in the crib.
Scary.
So I did it. And she cried during both naps for about 35 and 25 minutes respectively before she fell asleep. One nap she did 45 minutes and the other one she did an hour. She didn't wake up crying for once.
Today I was scared and geared up for 35 minutes of crying again. This time for nap #1 I put her down and she cried for exactly 1 minute, then she slept. She awoke once or twice around the 30 minute mark and cried, but only for 30 seconds each time with her eyes closed and back to sleep. She slept for 1 hour 15. Nap #2 she didn't cry when I put her down. She played in her crib for 5 minutes and then fell asleep. Same restless crying around 30 minutes, but went back quickly and slept for 1 hour 30 minutes.
I know some people hate the cry it out method. But all I can say is that I tried EVERYTHING with this child and so far, I am a firm believer in it working. It worked for night sleep, and now I feel like it may work for daytime. I think we gave her too much attention and she couldn't let herself sleep because she wanted our attention. The only way to let her know we were making the break was to go cold turkey. And when she was able to finally stop fighting the sleep I feel like it was a relief to her.
Again, I may have to take this all back tomorrow, but right now it feels right. And for any other moms out there looking for options - you know your baby best - but it won't hurt to give this a try if you're at the breaking point. If Cora can repeat this miracle and we start getting naps....well, there simply are no words. Bring on the woodland animals.
I'm so happy for you!!!! I think you have good reason to be hopeful. It takes a lot of faith to think that CIO is going to work--it just seems so mean. But it's hard to argue with the results.
ReplyDelete