Petra stayed in her crib all night last night, for the first time.
I'm not saying she slept all night, but we put her down there, and that's where she stayed until morning. It wasn't as bad as I've sometimes read it can be, but it was still not fun having her cry.
She's always slept in bed with us, though for the last few months she's gone to sleep in her crib, but come to bed with us when she wakes up howling at 11 or 12 or 1. Basically, it's because we are lazy, and the sound of her crying hurt us so much.
But she's growing up, and it's better to get her sleeping on her own now than later. We surveyed the whacko theories and draconian methodologies out there for sleep training, and ended up with "The Sleep Lady." Basically, though, they all come down to the baby crying and you not taking her to bed with you. TSL has you next to her crib for a couple of nights, then a little further away, then at the door of the room, then in the hall, etc. etc. until she's going to sleep on her own without you helping. We needed to follow a system to help steel our resolve to follow the system, rather than cave and bring her to bed. We both put in ear plugs and went to it.
Going to sleep however, isn't really the issue with us. Petra goes to sleep pretty easily. I take her back to her room, it's dark and the classical station is on the radio, and in 2-10 minutes she's out. Not a problem. The problem is when she wakes up howling and won't lie back down, and won't stop until she gets in bed with us. All the "systems" seem to act like getting to sleep is the problem, and not staying asleep.
So, you ask, how did it go? Not too bad. She went down at 7:30, her normal time, but woke crying at about 9 (earlier than usual) and didn't want to go back down. I sat with her, shushed her, patted her etc., but she howled for a half hour before falling asleep standing up with my arm around her. What a heartbreaker!
She stayed asleep until about 1am, then had another 20 minute cry before flopping down on her but and collapsing forward asleep. Again, not the way I'd want her to go to sleep. This is building self-soothing skills?
2:30 she did 15 minutes of crying before the sit and collapse again.
3:30 only 5 minutes; 3:50 (!) another 5 minutes; 4:30 about 10 minutes, and 5:40 about 10 minutes. She definitely didn't like being covered up, despite the chill in the air. She'd be out, and the second I'd cover her she would start yelling and stand up again.
So, total of only 1 hour and 15 minutes of crying for the first night. I've read about kids doing that EVERY TIME they wake up.
My biggest fear was that she'd be cranky and mad at me for forcing her to sleep in the crib, but after she woke up at 6:15 or so (just enough time for me to take a shower) she was her usual happy morning baby self. Hooray! She was a darling as we walked up to the polls together to vote (and play with a doggie outside). Though she fell asleep on her feet in daycare a little later, and slept an hour on the couch in the middle of the daycare scrum. Poor tired muffin!
And let's not forget poor tired daddy too! He got less sleep than Petra (and WAY less than mommy- those earplugs really work!). Thank goodness for espresso.
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