this, i have to say, is the million dollar question between moms! this is the ultimate achievement….the jackpot! if your baby is sleeping through the night i’d love to hear your secrets as well. my two boys sleep very well but i did it differently for both, since the first was sort of a learning curve….i now have my own mommy secrets to help you get your babies to sleep through the night and nap that have worked for me and others!
lets go back to where we left off last time with my 10 week old, hudson. He wouldn’t lay on is own, play on his own, rest on his own, let alone sleep on his own. needless to say i hit my breaking point and decided to let him figure it out on his own. i had read, very thoroughly, the book titled ‘healthy sleep habits happy child.’ this was going to be way of sleep training hudson. i was going to go the full extinction route, which meant letting him cry it out for the full hour before going in. i did have a video monitor to know that he was safe, but it didn’t make it any easier. maybe even worse to sit there and intently stare at the monitor, feeling like the absolute worst mommy in the world. the secret to this is, and if you’ve done a cry it out method than you know, it does work! hudson cried a full hour, i went back in changed, swaddled, fed and repeated again. by the end of the second hour i was in a full sweat and wanted to jump from our second story window. at the time, i thought just ending it all would be an easier solution. i again went in at the hour mark, repeated the same change, swaddle and feed and within thirty minutes he was asleep. thank god! by that point all i wanted to do was go in and hold him, which was of course the thing i was trying to avoid. man oh man, being a mom is hard!
i have to run, the sitter is here and we are heading out to dinner…..i will be back soon to let you know what happened the next night. i think you’ll be pleasantly surprised in hudson’s improvement! stay tuned……
I find it CRAZY that you feel it's okay to let your TEN week old cry himself to sleep….Babies need their mommys. I guess you haven't read any studies on how maternal response effects humans…I feel so sorry for your babies. You feel horrible sitting there listening to them cry for a reason…we're not designed to abandon our babies at night….especially newborns…what are you thinking?????
hi lynn,
thank you so much for your comment and opinion. i do see where you are coming from and agree with you, in that babies do need their mommies. i have read studies, was a science major and know a lot about the need for human contact. that being said, as hard as the tears were, i knew i was doing hudson a favour by letting him figure out how to sleep on his own. i am writing this blog because i have created new tactics with beckett, which has made him an excellent sleeper since the beginning without the crazy amount of tears. his extent of crying was 20 minutes on one occasion, otherwise just fussing here and there. today he smiles as i lay him down to sleep. please do whatever works for you, as you know your kids and yourself best. i am just sharing my experiences and what has worked for me. thanks again!