Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sleeping bliss

I had written a few weeks ago about all of the crying and Abigail only being able to sleep during the day when we would hold her - if we set her down she would wake up and the screaming would start again. Well, a few days ago I was inspired to re-read a book I had read before Noah was born. BabyWise. Following the principles worked great with him, and this time we were doing the part as far as the babies routine being Eat, Play, Sleep, but we had forgotten some of the finer points about sleeping during nap times. Before I go further, I have found that people either LOVE or HATE that book, and I would say that most of those that don't like it haven't actually read it, or at least not all of it. So, before I get tomatoes thrown at me by all of my AP mommy friends :-), let me reassure you that I feed Abigail whenever she is hungry!

O.k. so that being said, we decided that Abigail needed to learn how to fall asleep on her own, and be able to stay asleep when she wasn't being held. I thought that this might involve a lot of screaming, but I knew that it would be best for her, and best for everyone in the long run, so we were all going to tough it out.

So yesterday morning at her first nap, she cried for a total of 10 minutes, and then - silence. She was sound asleep, and I was actually able to do things. It might seem like 10 minutes is a long time, but she would often scream for 10 minutes before going to sleep even when we were holding her trying to get her to fall asleep. And this way I didn't have to hold her the whole time while she slept! I was thinking, WHY didn't I do this earlier? So today at her first nap she didn't even make a peep, not one single peep, she just fell right asleep. I couldn't believe it! (Well, actually I could because that is what happened with Noah) I just bundled her up, laid her down when she was happy and she fell right to sleep. At her second nap she cried off and on for about 10 minutes before going to sleep, and at this third nap she cried just a little bit and now she is just making little happy noises and grunts and is about to drift off to sleep. Ahh.... sleeping bliss! :-)

Oh, and the reason I got inspired to re-read the book was I was talking with a gal who was hosting an Arbonne party for me and she was telling me how her kids would just go right to sleep when laid down. Turns out she followed the BabyWise principles. I am thanking God right now that we had that conversation!!! :-)

2 comments:

marcie favelo said...

In case I haven't said it enough, you are such a good mommie. Abigail and Noah are so lucky to have you and Doug as parents. And isn't it nice that the book was right! Good job!

Shanti said...

I am so happy she's sleeping better!!! Isn't it amazing how well babywise works when you put all the pieces together? We knew we wanted to try it before we even had Vesper, but a lot of people said we would re-think it when we actually had a crying baby on our hands. I am SO GLAD we stuck to it despite others negativity! If Aaron and I hadn't seen it work with our friends children we might've been less convicted to stick to it. Vesper is now a joy to parent. I, too, have gotten some interesting reactions when it comes up that we're doing babywise. People might try reading it before they are so quick to form opinions. I am convinced more with each passing day that using this method is a wonderful tool that makes for happy babies and mommies! I can't wait to meet your little bundle in person soon. It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job as a mommy of TWO!!! WOW! much love to you. ~Shanti