Sleep Update

We started "sleep training" last week.  I use the term loosely because we're not strictly following any one method, just combining several strategies to try to get Lola to sleep through the night (ideally from 8ish to 7ish).  This will probably be a boring post for most of you, but I want to write it all down for reference for our next child.  I'm sure I'll forget everything :)

We hadn't really done anything before now because she was generally a good sleeper.  Around 8 weeks, she started sleeping 10-11 hours through the night, but that stopped after a few weeks.  Then she would wake once or twice, and I was okay with nursing her back to sleep.  She'd sleep through the night every once in a while, but never for more than 2-3 days in a row.  We reached a point last month where we decided we were just so exhausted from the unpredictability of her sleep patterns that we needed to do something.  Also, we knew she didn't need to eat in the middle of the night - she has gained plenty of weight and is eating more than enough during the day.

At the end of February, we started working on how we put her to bed.  We stopped rocking/nursing her to sleep and just put her in her crib.  I sat next to her crib until she fell asleep for the first few nights; then I started leaving the room after I put her down.  She got to the point where she would go to sleep in 15 minutes or so, with us maybe going in once or twice to soothe her (and sometimes we wouldn't have to go in at all).  But we were still struggling with how to handle the middle-of-the-night wakings.

Our first strategy was for Joseph to give her a bottle diluted with water when she woke, thinking that we could slowly wean her from the nighttime feedings.  It seemed to work at first, but she still kept waking up and wanting to eat.  So we decided to go cold turkey and stop feeding her in the middle of the night.  Joseph was in charge of tending to her, for I feared if she saw me she'd just want to eat and I'd cave in and nurse her.  Our plan was for him to go to her when she woke up and soothe her until she calmed down, then put her back in her crib.  Let her cry for 5 minutes, then go soothe her again.  Repeat until she went back to sleep, extending the amount of waiting time and decreasing the amount of soothing time.  Joseph did this for the first 7 nights, and then I took over (after she was used to not eating).  I think Joseph got the worst of it, because so far on my nights she's been rather easy.

Here's how that's worked:

• March 28 - Woke at 2, cried off and on with Joseph soothing intermittently, back to sleep at 3, slept until 7
• March 29 - Woke at 4:20, back to sleep at 5:30, slept until 6:50
• March 30 - Woke at 4:20, back to sleep at 5:30, slept until 7:10
• March 31 - Woke at 3:25, back to sleep at 4:55, slept until 6:20
• April 1 - Woke at 3:45, back to sleep at 5, slept until 7 (Joseph ended up sleeping with her)
• April 2 - Slept from 8pm until 6:30am!  Woke 3-4 times during the night but put herself back to sleep in 5-10 minutes.
• April 3 - Slept until 5, back to sleep at 5:45, slept until 7 (Joseph ended up sleeping with her)
• April 4 - Slept from 8pm until 7:20am!  Woke a few times but put herself back to sleep.
• April 5 - Woke at 4:25, back to sleep at 5, slept until 6
• April 6 - Slept until 12, back to sleep at 12:25, slept until 6:50

She is getting better every night at putting herself back to sleep, so hopefully that continues and eventually she'll sleep all night without waking us up on the monitor.  But at least she is no longer eating during the night, and she isn't screaming when she wakes - just a little fussy and is easily soothed if we have to tend to her.  But most times we don't even have to go to her.   I watch the monitor for 5-10 minutes to make sure she's okay, and she usually goes back to sleep on her own.

During a nap yesterday - so sweet :)