Well, as some of you already know, we've been battling sleep at night. Each day when Eden goes down for her naps, I begin to think that it will be easier at night than the night before - only to be proven wrong! We have been fighting Eden for an hour to an hour and a half at night to go to sleep...and then she's not sleeping through the night.
Last night Lane and I consulted a book that was given to us by his sister to see if it had any answers. When we started reading the chapter on sleep associations and how children rely on those associations we felt like someone had broken into our home and planted cameras and then watched Eden so they could write a book about it! It was that spot on. As we read we both looked at each other and laughed and said that we hoped the chapter didn't lead up to a big let down of something like "and this problem usually solves itself" or something of that nature. Well, it didn't, and as we were reading the solution - about an hour after Eden had FINALLY fallen asleep - she started crying again!
The solution to her sleep associations is that we are supposed to put her in her crib while she's still awake and not let her fall asleep in our arms. When we do this and she wakes up somewhere different than where she fell asleep it startles her and she doesn't know how to put herself back to sleep. We are also supposed wait at increasing intervals before going in her room to comfort her if she does wake up. Last night we had to wait 3 minutes the first time, then 5, then 10 minutes. I never had to wait the 10 minutes so that was nice. She did however get up at least twice in the middle of the night. I did not feed her and she did go back to sleep - on her own, with little struggles.
Today when Eden woke up at 6, I knew I wasn't ready to start the day so I decided to feed her and put her right back down. She slept until 9 after that, and then I was ready to tackle what today might have in store for us! When I put her down for her nap at 11:00 I put her in her crib, wrapped her up, and left the room as she was settling in. I did not have to go into her room after I put her down and we're coming up on 2 hours of a nap. This is great and all, but remember the beginning of this when I said the better she goes down during the day means the more I have in store for me at night so we'll see how tonight goes!
Good luck!!!
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