For the first time ever, Loren slept completely through the night last night, in her crib, in her room. Cheryl put her down in the crib around 7:30 PM, and she cried for 10 minutes or so and then fell asleep. She did not wake up or stir again until 5 AM this morning (or if she did, she put herself back to sleep without waking us up - which has been the point).Of course, she was wide awake at 5 AM and no amount of coaxing could get her to go back to sleep, but I'll take the 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep. And Cheryl was nice enough to get up with Loren this morning so I could try to squeeze an extra hour of sleep in (since I got up yesterday with Loren for her early morning wake-up).
We've been doing the "cry to sleep" thing for a couple days, and knock-on-wood, it seems to be working. We'll probably just get her used to the new pattern and then we'll be on holiday travel and it will throw a monkey-wrench into the whole deal, but we'll see.
NYC
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Actually she only cried for 6 minutes : )). Knock on wood, this process was far less painful than I expected. The first night it took her 30 minutes to fall asleep (with two visits from me), the second night 10 minutes (one visit), and the third night only 6 (before the first visit). And she's been in a great mood during the day, and relaxed at bedtime, so there doesn't seem to be any psychological trauma. I'm almost afraid to talk about it for fear of jinxing it! The attachment parents in our audience are probably mortified, but to quote Dr. Sears' own advice, "if something isn't working for you, change it." The people who say "what's attachment parenting?" are probably wondering why the hell we didn't do this months ago.
Simple solution to early morning wakeup call...just put her to bed later.
r-, I say this with greatest love and respect, but sleep is not the area where I would come to you and s- for advice : )), since you've got a very difficult sleeper and an easy sleeper and I think L is somewhere in the middle. Right now, I think the early wake up is due to a) no more long wake-ups where we rock or feed her back to sleep, therefore more actual sleep, and b) we've only cut out the one last night nursing altogether for a few days now, so her "tummy alarm" is not completely reset. She is very ready for bed by 7/7:30, which was true even when she was waking up later, and I hate to miss the sleep window my keeping her up any later! But that is an option to try if the early wakeup doesn't resolve in a few weeks. Can you tell I'm a little sensitive about the whole sleep issue -- it's such a charged topic...
Hey Cheryl! So glad to hear she is sleeping better!! Sounds like the earlier bed time really helps! ;)
Cheryl: The people who say "what's attachment parenting?"
That would be me. And even after reading the Wiki entry, I can't say I get it. After reading the Wiki I didn't get a feel for what's intrinsically different in this parenting approach than 'mainstream' parenting. The only hint I get is your own comment here about attachment parents being mortified at letting her cry herself to sleep. Is the theory that the child should never ever cry because of a want / need?
Cheryl: are probably wondering why the hell we didn't do this months ago.
Not really, although after reading the Wiki article I admit to being confused as to what about Attachment Parenting implied this shouldn't have been done.
Maybe Curt can dedicate a post to what the heck this is all about (I'm supplying him with posting material).
-r: Simple solution to early morning wakeup call...just put her to bed later.
I completely disagree with this one. For us that's never been the case. Kids have little internal alarm clocks, putting them to bed later just means you're screwing up their alarm clock or worse, they get up when they normally would have and now have gotten even less sleep (which makes them overly irritable). In fact, as hard as it was for me to believe until I saw it firsthand, based on pediatrician advice putting them to bed earlier actually helps with them sleeping later (again though, all kids are different, what works for one may or may not work for another). YMMV since you're just in the process of readjusting her feeding schedule though. I will say at our house we're big believers in the idea that kids need lots of sleep and it that it helps with their temperament. But again, all kids are different.
OK, trying to explain attachment parenting in the context of Loren and sleep and everything would be difficult to tackle in a comment and will probably take a post. I'll leave it up to Cheryl as to if she wants to reply here, but I'll work with her this week for a post.
It is a sensitive subject (as personal preferences when raising one's child usually are) that can be emotionally charged, so we'll have to put a little thought into what we post (as opposed to my normal, hack them out in 5 minute posts!).
;-)
It is a sensitive subject (as personal preferences when raising one's child usually are) that can be emotionally charged so we'll have to put a little thought into what we post
Bah, that's only if you care what other people think. :-) And I hope it's apparent, but I'll go ahead and say it. I'm not judging / praising / condemning this attachment parenting thing, I'm just trying to understand it.
(as opposed to my normal, hack them out in 5 minute posts!).
So you admit most of your material is just fluff pieces that you hack out. I can't believe you convince 50 people a day to read this stuff. And just in case it's not completely apparent, yes, I'm joking.
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