Mari had a great night of sleep Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, her best since we started the No-Cry Sleep Solution. She did indeed end up sleeping on her belly, at first because she rolled onto it and after that because I actually put her down on her belly, as an experiment. I woke her up around midnight to give her a dream feed just before I went to bed, and she woke up around 4 a.m. to feed as well. That was it. She spent the whole night in her crib, for the first time. I thought I was dreaming when I woke up alone in bed.
Then, the next day, her routine got totally disrupted by our trip out of town to see Jon's dad. She had four naps on Wednesday, but despite my best efforts, they were all really short. Further, because we arrived quite late, she didn't get to bed until 9:15. She was clearly overtired and fussy when she went to bed and although I tried again to get her to sleep on her belly, she still woke up constantly. The next day, after Jon did some work for his father's small business, we returned home. She napped a little better that day, but again, we got home late, and again, she didn't get to bed until after 9 PM, and again, she had a rough night.
Today, we're back home and I was quite strict about getting Mari down for her naps on schedule, but she still didn't sleep well. All three of her naps were short and would have been shorter if I hadn't ended up holding her for most of them because she wouldn't stay asleep otherwise. At night, even though we were slightly ahead of her official schedule, she was overtired because she hadn't napped well, and I really couldn't get her to bed any sooner than I did because I was starving and had to have a proper dinner. I had the lights out by 7:30, but it took her until 8:15 to fall asleep, and she's woken up plenty since then. I feel like much of the work I've done over the past 18 days has come to naught. Damn.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think that one thing people don't hear enough about sleep training is that it has to be done over and over again -- when there's a schedule change (which it sounds like she's sensitive to), along with a developmental change which is often coupled with a sleep regression, when she's sick, etc. Because this method is more labor-intensive than others, it's going to feel like you've got a lot more work to do when that happens. But it's normal and it doesn't mean that what you're doing isn't working. The more used to it she gets, the less work you'll have to do to get her back on track again.
ReplyDeleteThere's a big sleep regression coming up 8-9 months, so now is a really good time to keep working on the training. When she hits that regression, she'll probably wake up more for a while, but it'll be easier and easier to get her back on her schedule.
God, I don't know if I can cope with another sleep regression! Argh.
ReplyDeleteDid the four-month one hit Mari really hard? It did Caleb, but then for him the eight-month one wasn't too bad. So it might be OK!
ReplyDeleteHmm, maybe there's hope...
ReplyDeleteI don't actually think Mari has ever left the 4-month sleep regression.
Maybe the 8-month one will have her sleeping through the night. :) A total reset!
ReplyDeleteOne can always hope!
ReplyDelete