Sleep Training...Success?

You may remember that a few weeks ago I was at the end of myself. I was basically as exhausted as I was when Zoe was a newborn. I was definitely prepared to do whatever it took to make sure this little girl would learn to sleep on her own - desperation has a way of making a mom willing to do just about anything. I figured it wasn't fair to start sleep training before heading to Toronto, as her schedule would be so completely messed up anyway during that week. So I waited until the day after we got back to start. First order of business - swaddle free living. I decided we would have to do this cold turkey. I had previously tried to ease her into it with no success. After much encouragement from others that it would be a rough week, but a fruitful one, I pressed on. Well they were right. It was actually a brutal week and a half. Zoe would wake up constantly, not used to having her arms free and flailing about. We had not let her cry it out up to this point and felt that we should focus on swaddle-free sleep first, without adding yet another new thing for her to adjust to. That meant lots of rocking. Endless rocking. And very little sleep on our parts.

Next on the agenda: establishing regular naps. She had been napping a lot during the day before, but not for long and they were often sporadic. I knew we needed to get her on more of a regular schedule. We also needed to establish an earlier bedtime. We worked hard at this and we are just now seeing the fruit of it. Thankfully, after our trip to Toronto, Zoe began waking up between 7-8 every morning instead of her usual 5:30-6:00am. What a blessing!

Finally...stop the night waking. I really wanted to eliminate the night waking/feedings. I was exhausted and knew I could not take much more. When we felt she was used to the swaddle-free life, we decided to let her cry it out a bit. Again...brutal. The longest we let her cry was an hour, and then I couldn't take it anymore. She was nowhere near calming down and quieting to sleep, but rather increasing in intensity. It took me a half hour just to calm her down again. After that we decided to let her cry it out only at specific times. We would rock her to a sleepy-state, put her down and let her cry it out if she awoke again. This was/is difficult but it seems to be doing the trick.

For the past four days, she's been asleep by 8 and has only gotten up once at night to nurse. She's also woken up around 7:30 every morning which means she is getting about 11 and a half hours of sleep at night! Her naps have stabilized and she now has a regular morning nap between 9-10:30 and afternoon nap between 12-2 and a short later afternoon nap. We are hoping to begin pushing her bedtime back a little earlier in the next few days. All in all, I am SO THANKFUL!!!! It has been a VERY tiring process, but I have to say, if this sticks, it is worth it! As well, our rocking her to sleep now only takes about 10 minutes, if that. She is so used to this routine that she falls asleep in no time. YAY!

Thanks to all who have encouraged me to press on with this. I'm beginning to feel like I may just be getting my evenings and my sleep back. I hope this lasts!!