Ella is learning how to go to sleep by herself and all I have to say is hooray. I have this really bad habit that I have done with both of my children and it is this: I teach them to only go to sleep if I am feeding them or sometimes walking around with them. It has so far proven to be a very stressful thing because they sometimes will wake up right when I put them in their beds, which means I have to start all over again or sometimes they just won't sleep much at all.
This last week Ella was just getting worse and worse with her sleep and I was going insane and so one morning when I couldn't take it anymore I decided it was time for her to learn how to do this already. She's actually doing really well, which is a huge blessing. Sometimes she cries a little, but sometimes she just talks to herself for a few minutes before she's quite. Seriously - huge blessing.
With Henry, our pediatrician had told us that in his opinion (and there are MANY opinions out there) babies shouldn't be left alone to cry themselves to sleep until they are about 6 months old. So that is what we did. But Henry is very sensitive and didn't like that and so for just about 2 weeks, he cried for 2 hours every night as he went to sleep. It was very traumatic for everyone involved. Although now Henry is a great sleeper and he has been since he learned how to do it on his own.
Ella is just under 5 months, but I figured I needed to do it and I am so glad I tried. She is sleeping so much more and I feel a lot better about life.
So again, hooray for Ella.
7 comments:
We've had similar successes/failures with our kids. I think with Lauren, we digressed a bit, but are now back in the "let her cry herself to sleep" mode.
And it is traumatic, too. Half the time I lay there thinking "That little pill, why won't she just give in and go to sleep?" The other half the time I lay there thinking "What if her leg is caught in the crib and she's actually in pain?" Oh the fun games.
Jess
Yay for Ella and Yay for Mommy!! I'm glad you found something that worked -- I have been terrible with Josh and still have "bad" nights with him at least 50% of the time...unless I let him come sleep with us in our bed. Boo on that! Anyway, hopefully you're enjoying your new perkier, well rested self:)
Today she screamed and screamed and so i finally went in to find her blanket over her face, which she hates. Poor girl...
I don't know how you sleep with your kids in your bed - I don't think I could do that. Doesn't it keep you awake?
Yes it does...and therein lies the problem...but with 3 kids in one bedroom and one of those kids now in school...Jake and I often have to sacrifice my own sleep (and sanity) to keep the girls asleep when Josh won't. Therefore, he winds up in our bed, where HE will then sleep...but me, not so much. Yet another reason why we can't WAIT for the new house - Josh gets his OWN room! And my room will have a LOCK on the door, haha! (have you looked at our blog lately, by the way? construction...lots of construction!).
I have a hard time with the first six months because of this same problem. I read that Healthy sleep habits, healthy child book and it said to wait until 6 weeks and then let them cry but not forever--just an hour! That seems like forever when you have a new baby, or even a toddler. Anyway, it is always very traumatic for me. I would go into the garage in the freezing weather and scrapbook so I couldn't hear him cry. I was never very good at it because he just seemed too little to let cry for that long. I think it just takes a lot of time and a lot of knowing your child. It worked with Will at 5 months but it took a few weeks. It didn't work until 8 months with Isaac. Anyway, I'm glad she is sleeping for you now. Life is so much easier when that happens! Horray! You are over the hard part.
I love having kids that will sleep on their own! Geoff and Sarah are very different sleepers. Geoff is still an incredibly light sleeper and will wake with any noise at all. Sarah could sleep through a bomb! Jake is very cuddly when he gets sleepy. I LOVE that! He will point to his room and just let me lay him down. How did I get that lucky?? Because he does that, it's usually a dead give away if he's crying a lot -- that means he's not feeling well. He naps and sleeps great when he's healthy. It seems like sick babies always mess up their sleeping patterns though.
Anyway, congrats on the sleeping! Sleep is so valuable these days!
I've decided that it is a huge blessing when a baby sleeps. Ella is still working on this, but she's doing so well. Yesterday afternoon I couldn't get her to sleep and the one time she did fall asleep she didn't sleep very long - it was a difficult afternoon. But she's done fine since then. I don't know what the difference is. But I'll tell you - it makes SUCH a difference in a Mom's life to have a child who sleeps when they need to sleep!
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