Saturday, April 11, 2009

CIO days 2 and 3

It's getting better. Last night she fell asleep in TWO MINUTES, on her own in the crib. Although she woke intermittently through the night, she'd just complain a little bit and fall asleep again, never long enough for us to even get up at all. I did a wake-to-sleep nursing at 4 a.m., and Terry settled her down at around 6, and then she slept more or less until 7:30!

The only downside was that after 4 a.m. neither Terry nor I could fall asleep again. I thought of the irony that we're trying to get Valerie to learn to fall asleep on her own when we can't even do it ourselves! Some stretching, massage, and counting sheep eventually worked. I was pretty tense all night though.

I have to say that the second night we had a rough start. I put her down before she was ready and she screamed so hard she threw up - all over her pajamas, the crib, the floor... As soon as I ran in and picked her up and took off her dirty clothes she was fine. Happy and ready to play. Terry cleaned up the room while I changed and cleaned her up, then we started bedtime routine all over again and that time she was fine. I waited a little longer before putting her down. She cried for 20 minutes before falling asleep; during that time we spoke to her I think 3x. She woke intermittently through the night, but didn't have any really long waking periods. I nursed her at 3:30 or so. I also made the mistake of going in to her at 6:30; I thought she was awake for the day, but she fell asleep in my arms until 7:15.

So all in all this method seems to extend her sleep longer as well. But it may not be as deep of sleep, because yesterday she napped for a total of 4 hours when usually she does about 3.

Well, I guess I should get back to work...

2 comments:

BigP's Heather said...

So around what time are you putting her down for the night?

E. Phantzi said...

We start the bedtime routine around 7, or 6:45 if she's acting tired. She falls asleep anywhere between 7:30 and 9:00, but usually around 8:00. What we do is put away toys, cue "dreamland" cd, bath, pajamas, books - the book part is flexible, sometimes she wants to read for 2 minutes, sometimes for 30 minutes. Usually I wait until she asks to nurse, but once or twice I've cut her off earlier when I could tell she was just getting hyped up. I nurse her on both sides (about 4 minutes each side) and then hold her a few more minutes until I sense that she's ready to be put down. That's always the tricky part. I try to put her down before she's asleep, but when she's drowsy enough that she won't pop right back up again and want to play. Long answer because it really varies based on all those contingencies.