Babywise Bootcamp.

We are engaged in a little Babywise boot-camp at our house. Gracie's sleeping has gotten pretty bad and we have to do something. So, we are cracking down on her. It is not easy. Listening to her cry is just about the wost thing ever.

I have been following the eat-play-sleep cycle from Babywise, but not much else. I have been putting her to sleep, while she listens to the vacuum cleaner or the stove fan. She is so used to napping on me that she won't sleep in her bed during the day. So, I end up holding her for nap-time so that she will actually take a nap. She does okay in her bed at night, most of the time. In the past week she has been up twice for 2-hour stretches in the middle of the night. As much as I love her, this isn't Mommy's favorite time to hang out with Gracie.

It has become quite a struggle to get her to go to sleep and stay asleep. We are experiencing too many evenings of Gracie crying because she is up too late and can't fall asleep. Last night was one of those nights. She didn't take a good nap at 4pm and it was all downhill from there. I tried to put her to bed at 8pm and she finally stayed asleep in her bed around 11pm. She cried way too much before we got her to stay asleep.

I have known for a while that we were going to have to stop all of this, but I also knew that meant letting her cry. It has become such a struggle to put her down that she cries a lot anyway when it comes to sleeping. I decided that it was better to hold her while she cried then to put her down and let her cry. Unfortunately, I just can't do it anymore. She is getting too heavy and too strong to hold while she is crying and fighting sleep. When she only cries for 10-15 minutes, I can handle it. When she cries for 45 minutes, I feel like I am going to lose my mind. She is a sweet girl, but she has a very loud scream. It sounds 10 times louder when she is screaming in my ear and I am trying to hold onto her wiggling little body.

Since she is crying and fighting sleep, we decided we may as well start putting her in her bed and let the crying break some of the bad habits we have developed. I know that having her on a good sleeping schedule will be awesome. Since she is  waking up too much at night, we are going to crack down on that was well. Normally, as soon as she wakes up, I feed her and put her back so sleep. By early morning, she is barely going 2 hours in between feedings. We never know when she will wake up for the day and when she will go to sleep at night.

So, I am re-reading Babywise. I need some structure. If I am going to let her cry, I need a solid plan. It is time to fully commit to this. Plus, I can't be making decisions while she is crying. This morning she ate at 8am, so I used that as her first day feeding. She napped on me a little after that feeding, but didn't really go back to sleep. I put her to sleep at 10am and laid her down in her bed. She was awake by 10:20am. And, I let her cry. It was tough. I left her in her bed until 11am, since she should have slept at last 1 hour. She should be eating every 3 to 3-1/2 hours during the day so I got her at 11am and feed her. She wasn't very happy, but we got through it. Thankfully, Daddy came home for lunch at 11:15am so he was able to calm her down and play with her. I put her back to sleep at 11:45am. It took me until 12:10pm to get her good and asleep. I nervously carried her upstairs and put her in her bed. I prayed that she would sleep because the thought of her crying until 2pm was unbearable. She is still asleep. I am really hoping that she will wake up right around 2pm on her own. Otherwise, I am going to have to wake her up to keep her eating on the right schedule. Anytime she takes super long naps during the day she wakes up at night every 2 hours. She does not like to be woken up.

But, I am going to have to be tough. Plus, Daddy will be home around 3pm. Teaching a baby to sleep is hard work.