We're sleep training...need I say more?

I'm not sure what I was thinking.  We bought this house and thought, "oh yes, we will put Caroline and Ian in the same room....they will share a room and this will be great."  Sure, in my head this sounded so easy.  In reality, I have a baby who doesn't really care to sleep...or doesn't really know how to sleep.  And I have a 2 1/2 year old who likes to push every button, and do the exact opposite of what I tell him to do. Like I'm going to put him to bed and he's going to be quiet like I tell him to????

What was I thinking?

So I was fed up.  I was fed up yesterday when C did not sleep well during the day for the umpteenth time.....because not sleeping well during the day translates into not sleeping well at night.  And I had been up with her by myself Wednesday night and Thursday night.....late.  And then early.  I was exhausted.

So exhausted that I whined about it on facebook.

"Okay, so I cried reading this, because it is so true and because we just went through a super tough night with husband out of town, baby not sleeping, toddler waking up to pee pee in the potty every 3 hours during the night because he doesn...'t want to wet his nighttime diaper (I know....it's a good thing, right?), baby completely rejecting one breast, and I'm tired and want to cry! But then I read this post and it helped me remember that every mom goes through this! There is someone (many) who are just as tired as I am this morning, and they still go on to handle their children with LOVE during the day."

 

Then my husband got back from out of town.  And C slept like an angel that night.  Go figure.

The next night was not so good, she was up for baby party time at 4:30am.  So then last night I guess Rob was done with all this baby-not-sleeping-nonsense and he sat with her while she cried it out....sort of.  She cried and he was there, and then eventually she fell asleep. 

I was mad about the CIO.  I felt terrible that she cried, my blood pressure was rising, so he took her upstairs where I could not hear her.  I googled "CIO" on my phone as I lay in bed, trying to find reasons why she shouldn't CIO so that I could march upstairs and give him a piece of my mind, and so that I could save her from the crying and cuddle her to sleep.  What I found was one of a gazillion sites on CIO, and this one convinced me that our baby indeed needed some sort of self-soothing training....not that CIO was the complete answer, but I read enough that I was able to go to sleep and let him handle her last night, and today I sprung into action. 

 

I moved the pack and play into Ian's room.  So Ian is still in his crib and C went down for a nap in the pack and play.  I put a super loud fan in there for white noise.  I put C down when she was very sleepy, full of milk, but still awake.  She cried.  I left and timed 5 minutes and went back in.  I picked her up (okay, have no idea if that was the right thing to do...it's what I wanted to do, but I felt like it might be a bad idea)....calmed her, laid her back down and she cried for 10 minutes.  Same routine, went back in and soothed, laid her back down and came back after 11 minutes.  It took 50 minutes, but then she fell asleep.

 

I couldn't believe it.  Yes, I thought my baby was going to really stay awake for ever.  I thought she would cry and never give up.  But she didn't.  Her cries got more and more tired and less "fighting", and then she got into a comfortable position and went to sleep.

 

Rob asked what I did while she was crying.

 

Crunches.  I figured it would help relieve some of the adrenaline I had flowing while she was crying and while I was getting stressed over the crying.

 

Well, not 50 minutes of crunches, but enough to take off the adrenaline flow ;)

 

Then I put Ian to bed.  He was a little noisy at first.  He was totally testing me.  He was kicking his feet on the crib mattress and then looking over at her pack and play to see if it would wake her up.  It did, and he didn't do it again after the talking to that he got.  But I had her back to sleep in 10 minutes.  And she continued to sleep and then he fell asleep.....by George, at one point they were both asleep in the same room.  I thought I was going to fly to the moon I was so excited.

 

So she took a good afternoon nap, and so did he.  But as the day progressed I started to get really anxious about what the night would hold.  She was getting cranky around dinner time and I thought there is no way to hold her off another 1 1/2 hrs.  So I gave her her nighttime bath and we got into pjs and nursed and I put her to sleep at 6:30pm.  It is now 7:29pm and she is still sleeping.  I have no idea how it will go trying to put Ian to bed in about 30 minutes.  The best I could think to do was at least get his pj's out of the room so that he can put them on somewhere other than his room, and then we will tiptoe to bed!?!? 

 

The other problem with my plan is that Ian has a cold.  So there is the potential of him sniffing, sneezing and being utterly cranky throughout the night which could also throw a big wrench into my sleep training plan. 

 

I guess only time will tell...the minutes keep on going by and it's only a matter of time until C decides she's going to wake back up.

 

From this....

 

 

To this.....

 

Wish me luck!