One day, my coworker told me about a sleep trainer who is also a post partum doula that he hired for his 1.5 year old ( who was waking up every 2 hours and has never slept through the night). The Sleep Trainer, sounded AMAZING. So, he gave me her number and I gave her a call.
She told me exactly how she was going to train Baby C. She even told me to try it out myself first, if it worked..to call her and we could cancel the appt I scheduled with her. I was weary..since sleep training has been super hard for me to do. The Sleep Trainer was set to come on Friday night at 9:45pm. She predicted that Baby C would wake up by then. She told me to put him to bed at 7:30pm. She told me that part of the problem was that Baby C was going to bed wayyy too late ( I would put him to bed around 9pm). At the same time, she told me she would help me wean Baby C off of his pacifier, which I felt like was keeping him from sleeping through the night. She told me that weaning him off the pacifier was the easy part, and he really shouldn't be using a pacifier past 9 months...after that it gets harder and harder to break babies of that habit.
So, on Thursday night, I decided to give this sleep training thing a try. I put Baby C to bed at 7:30, as expected. He cried. The Sleep Trainer told me to make his room pitch black, turn on his white noise machine ( I have one that runs all night long), give him his last bottle around 7:15 pm, place him in his crib and walk away. I was told not to give him his pacifier. If he cried, I was to check on him every 2 minutes...pat him on his chest and say, " baby go night night".
Day 1: Baby C cried from 7:30 pm to 8:30pm. I went in his room every 2 minutes to pat him on his chest. I felt so bad for him, because he was really really mad that I was leaving him. So I would try to say encouraging things. I would never stay in his room for more than 1 minute. I also made my husband work out in our basement, since he can't stand to hear Baby C cry and would instantly go to his room and pick him up. Everytime he wanted to do this..I would convince him not to. Baby C finally fell asleep he slept from 8:30pm to 1am. At 1am he woke up, cried for 2 minutes and then fell asleep. I did not go into his room. He then woke up at 5 am. Now..this is when I usually feed Baby C, I was SOOO happy he slept till 5am that I went to his room gave him his bottle and brought him into my room.
In the morning, I called the Sleep Trainer and told her the good news..it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, so she cancelled our appt and told me to do the same thing for the next 3 days ( meaning if he cried pat him on the chest and walk away..she told me I didn't have to go in every 2 minutes from now on, because he should be catching on to the pattern already). She told me NOT to get Baby C when he woke up at 5am. She said, he needs to learn to sleep from 7:30pm to 7:30 am. If he did happen to wake up at 6:30am, it was ok..but she would prefer he sleep till 7:30, since most babies his age do need 12 hours of sleep at night.
She also told me that by bringing him into our room, I was telling him that I did not believe that he could sleep through the night all on his own. She gave me a talk on how at the age of 8 months I was basically shaping his future and his confidence. We needed to show Baby C that we believed he could do anything he set his mind to, especially since he really really really needed to sleep better. She told me, that babies like adults sleep better in their own bed on their own and if I was ok with co sleeping, than it was totally fine. But in our case, the co sleeping method was not working for our family.
Day 2: Baby C cried for 30 minutes and fell asleep at exactly 8pm. He slept until 5 am, cried and then fell back to sleep until 7am.
Day 3: Baby C cried for 2 minutes and fell asleep, he woke up at 5 am cried for 30 minutes and then fell asleep till 7am.
Day 4: Baby C fell asleep as soon as I put him in his crib, he woke up at 4:30 and cried for 20 minutes, he then fell asleep until 7:15am.
Day 5: We went out to dinner, and didn't get home till around 7:45. I put Baby C to bed after reading him a book and giving him his last bottle. He cried for 2 minute and fell asleep.
We also took Baby C's pacifiers away from him, since we knew he would be crying, we figured the pacifier would be constantly falling out of his mouth anyways. He actually totally forget about the pacifier after day 1 and we are so relieved that he doesn't need it anymore. We did notice that he is getting a lot more vocal than before..probably because he doesn't constantly have something in his mouth.
This time around, it seems like sleep training Baby C has been a lot easier. I think what made it work this time was that we really committed to it and did not go pick him up in the middle of the night. We also, were very consistent in hisbedtime routine. Baby C would eat dinner between 6-6:30, he would play for a bit while we go this bath ready, after his bath I would brush his teeth, then read him a book, he would then drink his last bottle and then I would put him in his crib.
As everyone probably has already told you, yes routine is key..it sucks that my husband and I have to rush home..that means no more late dinners, but having Baby C sleep well is very much worth it!
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