Friday, April 20, 2012

sleep stories

So, for most of Nola's life I've been decidedly against cry-it-out for her.  Don't ask me why.  It worked totally fine for Natalie (most of the time), and Nathan was just an easy sleeper from the get go.  But with Nola, I just never felt like it was right with her.  So for 14 months, I've been at her mercy as far as when bedtime or naptime is likely to occur.  About a month ago, I started laying her down to fall asleep but staying with her with my hand on her back until she was asleep.  But something changed about 2 weeks ago, and it quit working.  She suddenly thought it was playtime, and she would cry for a little bit and then get up and laugh at me.  Needless to say, I was far from amused.

So for the past week or so, we've been nursing before sleeping still.  But if she wakes when I put her in bed, I lay her down and tell her it's night-nights and leave the room.  I come back at five minutes if she's crying, do the same thing.  Then if she continues to cry, I go back ten minutes after that.  And so on and so forth.  Fortunately she usually falls asleep before I have to go in there a third time after 15 minutes, but there are exceptions (like tonight).  But the really miraculous thing is that not only am I not stuck putting her to bed for three hours, she's also sleeping through the night now!  She'll usually go from about 7:30 to between 4 and 6 without waking up to nurse.  And by that point, I usually go ahead and bring her to bed with me for some well-deserved snuggles while she nurses and snoozes until she hears the kids wake up.

And not only is she sleeping through the night, she's also taking 1-2 amazing naps during the day.  She typically only gets one on the days I have school because she waits for me to get home to nurse her at around 12:30, and then she'll sleep 2-3 hours.  Although, she did fall asleep on Daddy for a morning nap for the first time this week so maybe she'll start doing more of that.  On days that I'm home, she starts whining for a nap by about 9:30 or 10 depending on when we get out of bed.  And then she'll take her nebulizer treatment while she's nursing and fall right to sleep for two hours, wake up for lunch, play a little bit, and go right back down around 2 or 2:30 for another 2 hours and still go to sleep for the night at 7:30!  I must say I love this new routine we've developed, and I know she's a happier little girl now that she's getting all the sleep she needs.  I can't help but wonder if the asthma had anything to do with the poor sleeping too.  Who knows...

And now that I've reported her amazing progress to the world, it's likely that things will do a 180.

I'm aware of this risk.  Praying that Jesus continues to work this miracle in my precious girl's life!

2 comments:

  1. Amazing! Awesome! I love it! I also pray the good sleeping continues.

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  2. Yay for Nola....and mommy!! This method is toughest on the mama, I'm certain. I should know...I have two "cry it out" students of my own!

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