After a few tough nights with B, I decided it was time for something
We started BW Saturday night. I nursed her, gave her a relaxing bath, snuggled for a bit, then sang "Jesus loves Me" and put her in her bed. She cried for an hour till her next feeding. We set a timer and went in every five minutes to soothe her by picking her up and cuddling her. M and I both agreed that it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. I think it really helps to have two people working as a team. Moral support is key! And this is exactly why I am dreading today...M has work of course. :( Everything with a baby is easier with two! (Single moms I admire you beyond belief...)
After I fed her I put her down in her crib and she went to sleep, no crying, for three hours! I was THRILLED! And M and I finally slept in our new king bed without baby...success! The rest of the night she woke up every two hours, which I wasn't thrilled with but it's respectable for her first night. I must say, it was pretty great not worrying about her in our bed... Around 5am I fed her and then told M I was going to the guest room to sleep till 7. She needed soothing for a half hour, then slept for an hour. Around 6:30 she woke up and needed soothing till 7. I'm wondering if she struggled at this time because it was becoming lighter in her room?
Her first nap was a bust because we walked to church and she fell asleep in her Moby wrap. On the way home the same thing happened. When we got home I tried to put her down out of the Moby and she cried for the whole hour till her next feeding. There were times when I thought she had finally gotten herself to sleep because she was quiet for five minutes and then she would start up again.
Nap number two I successfully put her down with no crying. She slept an hour and then M and to soothe her to sleep every fifteen minutes after that. We attempted a pacifier and that seemed to kind of help her initially go down.
Nap number three: total SUCCESS! I put her down with a paci (which I noticed on the monitor that she spit out pretty quickly) but she slept for a whole HOUR and a HALF! No soothing! I sat downstairs watching her on the monitor (here) which was SUCH a great purchase if you ask me, while I blogged (this post to be exact!). I think we're on to something here...
So, M makes fun of me because I ask anyone and everyone for advice. But here comes my ploy...if you have done BW how has it worked for you? I want to know EVERYTHING! I am so thirsty for knowledge for what worked for other mommies. My thing is this...why try to figure it out on my own when someone else already has? No point in reinventing the wheel!
Here are some pictures from our weekend...
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| Bella trying out her pool |
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| grandpa bushman (bad sleeping habit documented...dangit) |
You are doing doing such a great job on the Mommy front Nat! She is seriously so adorable with those little poutty lips!
ReplyDeleteGosh, I am absorbing as much of this as possible! I have no advice for you, but hoping you get into a pattern soon and have advice on BW once you get a handle on it. She is sooo cute when she sleeps though! Little angel!
ReplyDeleteI have been meaning to congratulate you on your adorable little girl! It's been enjoyable to read and a learning experience when I have one;)...My sister did BW with all her three kids and I hope to do the same. She stuck through the schedules and the crying. She always knew what her baby needed because of what time it was. Hope it works out for you!
ReplyDeleteWhen my daughter was first born I hadn't read BW but was trying a similar method with the whole daily routine... She'd wake up, nurse, small amount of activity, then nap time with the same routine. For several weeks everything went great! But at her 6 week growth spurt Cadence changed and decided that she didn't need to nap for 1 1/2 to 2 hours at a time, she went down to three 30 minute naps!! Unbelievable for a 6 week old to sleep so little during the day. I honestly thought I was not going to make it through certain days... 30min is just not enough time
ReplyDeletedo get anything done!!! So for the next several
months I tried everything and anything, I read practically every book out there trying to figure out
how to make her nap longer. The only upside to her
short naps was that she did start sleep a lot better at
night... Shed sleep from 7pm-8am and only wake up once or twice!! Eventually after trying every method including BW and controlled crying, my pediatrician told me that unfortunately she is gonna be a child that doesn't need that much napping during the day because she sleeps so well at night. I had to come to terms with the fact that mommy just doesnt get a break during the day and to be grateful she was sleeping so well at night.
Well, for many months this went on where'd she fall asleep unassisted besides our normal sleep routine, well then my husband got very sick, was hospitalized and had emergency surgery and everything that messed up with her routine. She refused to fall asleep unassisted, relied fully on us rocking her. Between, taking care of my husband and baby I just couldn't muster up the energy to use BW to get us back to where we were. That is until around her first birthday, she would wake up as soon as we laid her down and even her night time sleep was gettig out of control... She was waking anywhere from 2-6 times at night. I realized enough was enough and read BW and the Ferber method books again and came the conclusion she needed to re-learn how to soothe herself and fall asleep unassisted. It took 3-4 days-nights of the controlled crying and keeping to a routine during the day of when naptime was. By this point she was down to two 30min naps. But thank goodness, it worked!!! It was definitely tough listening to her cry but going in at set intervals that long and long each night helped. I'm so happy I used both methods... I know they get critisized so much because you have to let them cry some but it honestly saved our lives. I wish I would have done it sooner but I can say now that Cadence takes her two naps around the same time everyday, 11am and 3pm and her bedtime is 8pm and she sleeps solidly till 7am the next morning!!! And if she does wake up during the night, she may fuss for less than a min but she now knows how to soothe herself back to sleep!!!
I know this may not entirely help your situation because B is way younger than Cade is but I promise you this... All children are different, it may take longer, I've read that it takes a good week to instill NEW routines with babies. So keep up the hard work and I know it'll pay off in due time!!! Also, I'm not sure if you swaddle B, but that was a key thing in getting Cade to sleep longer and trying to increase nursing time even if it was just by a minute or two!!! Good luck and I'm interested in reading other moms stories, especially since baby #2 will be here soon and who knows how sleep patterns will develop for him/her!!!