sleeping boot camp

 

After eight straight days of me trying to slowly ease Charlotte out of her addiction to her swaddle we tried a new approach.  Jay got home from camp last week on Friday and we had a busy weekend of back to school shopping, going out to dinner, church and a Bradley reunion.  Not much sleeping happened for Charlotte and definitely not many scheduled naps in her crib.  So come Monday we knew that we had to really buckle down, and buckle down we did.  After an inspirational conversation on facebook with some of my most respected momma’s we decided to go with “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” a sleep training book by Dr. Weissbluth.  He has three methods that you can choose from and they range from letting children cry it out (as long as 60 minutes during the day) all the way to more of an attachment style (totally what I was rocking last week).  After some input from other momma’s and a couple of walks and discussion with Jay and myself we decided to just jump right into the book and do exactly what it said.  On Monday morning we started; Charlotte was to be fed, laid down in her crib awake and we were to let her cry for up to one hour without going to her to comfort or soothe.  I predicted that she would cry for 45 minutes, Jay predicted an hour...an hour it was!  She cried for the full hour and when we went up stairs to get her up she was doing that ugly cry, with sniffling and snorting...the whole works.  I felt so bad for her!  Jay was definitely the strong hold and kept me from going up stairs. 

Well, we have been at it all week and she has really improved!  Of course, Jay and I being our nerdy selves, decided we could see progress better if we graphed the results.  This is her graph for this past week.  You can see (I really apologize again for the nerdiness!) she has really cried less and less all week.  A good nice “down and to the right” graph, as Jay describes it.  This shows her three naps a day, for the past four days...how much less she is crying now than she was at the beginning of the week.

It turns out that all of the advice of removing the swaddle cold turkey (rachel) and just biting the bullet and letting her cry it out (facebook mom advice panel) really did work.  She is currently sleeping in her crib with no swaddle and I am writing a blog post down stairs in the family room!  Amazing!

Here is a shot of C after a “nap” on Monday and then a shot of her after a real nap on Wednesday, notice the difference!

The two best highlights of this week on accounts of her new found sleep schedule...

First, Jay and I have watched tv on the couch, without child for the past two nights!  We have not watched tv in months and now actually get to spend some time winding down at the end of the day...it is great!  She goes down around 7:30 after a bath and a bottle and no swaddling, shushing, bouncing!  Lovely!

The second highlight was the bike ride we took last night.  We were suppose to have about an hour before we needed to start the bedtime routine, so we took Charlotte’s first bike ride in her buggy.  She started off nicely...

but before we knew it, she was totally passed out!

This girl is falling asleep left and right now! We are not finished with the training yet, but we love some progress!

-melissa

goodbye to the magic...almost

I am currently on the floor of Charlotte’s dark nursery typing this blog as quietly as i can, my fingers moving very slowly and the computer as dimmed as it can go while letting me to still see what I am typing.

The past month here has been pretty good as naps are concerned.  We were concerned that all of our travelings would mess up C’s sleep schedule, but she did pretty good.  Although Charlotte has only been here a short four and a half months I can remember each month very clearly. (People say when you have a baby you block out/forget all of the trials and difficulties, but I remember all of them perfectly well.  Evidently, I am still knee deep in the craziness.)  Anyways, Charlotte's report card for napping goes something like this:

Month 1:all she did was sleep: A

Month 2: did a good deal of sleeping on us and in swing: B

Month 3: would not sleep unless touching someone and would only fall asleep after 30 minutes of bouncing, shushing and yes, sometimes the electric slide: D

Month 4: one three hour nap in the morning, one hour in the afternoon in her crib: A

We were doing great, I was having some free time, all was well and then at our four month check up (which actually happened when she was 4 1/2) the pediatrician dropped the bomb on us, NO MORE SWADDLING!  Now, Charlotte has been swaddled from day one, the first time I saw her she was tightly swaddled, I am convinced she came out swaddled.  She started being swaddled in two hospital blankets, moved to two bigger blankets when she out grew the previous, moved to swaddlers when she outgrew the previous and then we found the magic blanket...and boy was it ever magic!  With the combination of a noise machine that friends suggested to us and this huge houdini wrap we were in business cranking out some great sleep.  As soon as we have found our groove the doctor says that we have to start transitioning away from it!?!?When I anxiously asked the doctor will she ever sleep again she kindly replied, “never”, with a smile and that is all that was said.  I did not want to seem incompetent so I let it slide and decided to deal with it later.

Well after watching little C almost roll over in her crib while being swaddled on several occasions I am terrified that she is going to get rolled over on her tummy and not be able to get her back over.  So transitioning is what we have been doing for the past three days.  Transitioning is exhausting, for me and Charlotte.  She has gone from cumulatively four hours of naps a day to maybe one hour if you add up all the five minute increments.  Thus is the reasoning of me sitting on the floor in a dark nursery.  In the twenty minutes that I have been writing I have got up, shushed, replugged and laid hands on (and I will admit praying) five times.  That averages every four minutes.  

Yesterday I actually tried doing tasks in between running up and down the stairs and it did not work, you can’t get much done in four minutes.  Needless to say the magic is over, the magic blanket is currently wrapped around her body under her armpits making her look a lot like a mermaid.  This is my peebrain, feeble attempt at trying to make her feel somewhat normal.

Later that afternoon.

So after 90 minutes of honestly a failed attempt this morning, we came downstairs for a shower and lunch for myself.  Only being downstairs for one hour and Charlotte was so cranky that we came back up to try again.  I fed her (although she has not been eating much due to the fact that she keeps falling asleep while eating) and laid her down in her bed and I quietly laid down in the guest bed, 40 minutes later, we had a successful nap, or so I thought.  When I went to her room she gave me a quick smile and then began to cry and the crying would not let up no matter what I did...different positions, standing up, rocking, even trying to get her up and dressed.  SHE IS JUST SO TIRED.  So in a fit of desperation I swaddled her, this is her third day of crappy naps and the poor thing is just completely tuckered.  

Right now she is asleep in her crib all strapped down houdini style once again.  After telling Jay of all of our napping woes last night he suggested maybe just try with one nap a day and then we can move to two.  Maybe we will start his idea...poor baby...so tired.

Hopefully in the near future I can blog about my un-swaddled baby, a sleeping baby without the use of a magic blanket, but not today.  It is 3:30 and I have already logged in three hours just on the carpet of her nursery.

-melissa

four months

Dear Charlotte,

Today you are 4 months old!!! Each week that passes by you grow, not only in length and weight, but in knowledge and experiences. It’s been amazing to watch you grow up before our eyes. Our worries and concerns as new parents are constantly replaced with new worries and concerns as you grow and change. It’s funny how we’ll joke around and say things like, “remember what it was like when...” referring to what you use to do or not do. Just last night mommy and daddy were talking about how crazy it was when we had to get up every 2-3 hours in the night to feed you. And it’s funny how without keeping record I can tell anyone who asks how many nights you’ve slept 8 hours straight and numerous other little statistics about you. You are a beautiful little girl and your smiles have a way of making life even better than it already is. We love you so much and can’t wait to see what happens between today and your 5 month checkup. The Hess family will never be the same because of you...

-jay