Sleep Training

The dreaded day has arrived. For months now I have been resisting the knowledge that we would someday have to "sleep train" Taylee. I just knew she wasn't going to magically start sleeping through the night on her own. She just isn't that kind of girl. =) For months things were pretty nice. She would get up one time, between 2 and 4 am to eat, then go easily back to bed. Not too bad. Then, recently she started fussing several times a night, needing her binki to go back to sleep. Kent and I were getting up 4,5,6 times a night. Things were getting out of hand!! Thus, sleep training. So, we picked a weekend when we could both be home for 3 nights straight. Thursday night was sleep training night one. Basically, we complete our bedtime "routine" (lotion, jammies, bottle, story), then we put her in her crib, no binki. The 1st night she cried for about 20 minutes, then fell asleep. We were off to a good start!! I thought she would cry for an hour or more! Don't get me wrong, it still sucked. She woke up a few times and cried for 5 minutes or so, but fell back asleep on her own. Not bad. Friday night she only cried for 10 minutes at bedtime. Yay! Then she got up at 11 . . . and cried for an hour and half. It sucked. And she got up again at 4 . . . and cried for an hour. It sucked again. We were a little discouraged on Saturday morning. By the time Saturday night rolled around I was pretty nervous. However, things went a little better. Taylee slept (for the first time in her 8 months of life) THROUGH THE NIGHT! Whoo Whoo! I, of course got up several times to check on her, and did not enjoy the opportunity to sleep myself. The other recent change to her sleep routine is that she will no longer sleep on her back AT ALL. She always goes to sleep on her tummy. Of course, this totally freaks me out, but as she can now roll herself over, I have lost control. Anyways, we are excited to be teaching our daughter good lifelong sleep habits (hopefully!). Stay tuned, I am sure there will be more to come!