Things On The Sleep Front

We are so blessed! Terry and I love our children so much but also realize how exhausting it is being parents at this stage of life. We had our trials with Jaret but they revolved mainly around nursing/eating. From six weeks of age, Jaret was a great sleeper and remains one to this day. Kirra on the other hand, challenges us on the sleep front. She is a happy and content baby, despite the lack of sleep. She has never been much of a napper and doesn't love to sleep through the night, unless being cuddled and nursed to sleep by her Mommy. I knew that I needed to do something more before things continued this way and these sleep patterns of hers became all she knew. So, I turned to Tracy Hogg - 'The Baby Whisperer'.
I was reminded about the importance of naps and teaching your little ones how to soothe themselves to sleep. I read and reread her advice on the pick-up/put-down (PU/PD) method and decided it was time to give it a try. Last Sunday night I implemented it by ensuring that we had a quiet night time routine so that Kirra is reminded each night that bedtime is near (something I was already doing). Then rather than nursing her to sleep or holding her until she fell asleep I simply put her in her crib and covered her with her blanket. I stood by her crib and when she cried, I picked her up; when she stopped, I immediately put her down. When she was laying down, I cuddled the blanket up by her face and put my hand on her chest (with her hands tucked so she couldn't move them about and try to take the soother out of her mouth) as I whispered sweet nothings to her. "Sweet dreams. Sleep tight. I love you, princess. Good Night. Close those big, beautiful, blue eyes and go to sleep. Mommy loves you Kirra." And so it continued for about 40 minutes until she was finally into that deep sleep. I had been turning on the musical mobile in her crib but this seemed to be more of a distraction sometimes. The light can be quite bright when she is falling asleep and it doesn't play for long enough so she would wake up when the music stopped as she wasn't into a deep enough sleep yet. We have now started playing soft, lullaby music and she really seems to soothe to sleep much better. So from 40 minutes of trying to get her to sleep to only 10 minutes tonight - we have found success! From no naps or very short naps to two good naps today - success! From waking every hour some nights and only wanting to be nursed and cuddled to sleep, to waking less frequently - we have found success!
SWEET DREAMS!