Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Sleep training

For those of you moms or children that easily slept through the night early on in your life...you are lucky.
And apparently, according to all that I am reading, very abnormal.
Most children do not sleep through the night, without parental intervention (rocking, nursing, cuddling, etc.) til they are in preschool.
PRESCHOOL!!
Lord help me!
Ashby has been a very good little nurser since I had her. I have literally not ever given her a drop of formula. Not even in the hospital. It has been a blessing for us both (i.e. cheap, convenient, bonding, easy.) But now, at 13.5 months I am starting to want to have my body completely back before I (pause, drawing in a deep deep breath) decide to try for the next one. I am running a half marathon this summer (hill workout today...yikes and awesome at the same time) and my goal is to have weaned her by then (approximately 17 months.
I am a little saddened at the prospect, but also know I have had an incredible experience nursing her.
Back to the point.
While Ashby has been an incredible nurser, she has also not been an incredible sleeper. The thing is that I could always put her right back to sleep with nursing, but with the exception of a few sweet months when she was waking up after 5-6 hours, she has been waking every 2 hours, on the hour (sometimes more) to nurse. And mostly just to pacify herself.
Dave and I would like our bed back. And I would LOVE to have 7 hours of uninterupted sleep, maybe even more.
So were working on it. I had to finally let go and say "She is going to be ok, feel loved, and safe, without sleeping in my bed." I know that logically, but when you have a sweet baby who grows into a sweet and happy toddler, it is hard to change something knowing that it will be hard for them too.
I'll keep you posted. We're using the no-cry sleep method book. Which has been more like the minimal cry sleep method book.
Progress so far in 2 weeks. A daily 2 hour nap in her crib. By herself.
Some parents think I am nuts for just now getting this milestone.
In many ways I do too.
But Parenting is not one-size-fits-all. Life is very different for all of us. I feel bad for some of the "i'll never be that parent" statements I have either thought or made in my life.
I'll leave you with a few of my sweet sleeping baby pictures.
4 days old.

tired babies

LOVE the ergo

when she finally fell asleep in the car..(shes not a huge fan)


No comments: