Pages

Saturday, August 13, 2011

This isn't my child

As I sit here watching the baby on the monitor lay down with Minnie Mouse in her arms I'm thinking, "who is this baby, and what happened to my other one?!"

I sit her in the crib, kiss her on the forehead and walk out without hearing a peep. I even tried my luck with nap time yesterday, and she went down without a fuss. Today she even played in her crib a little before napping.

Seriously, this all seems too good to be true. I'm waiting for my night owl to come back. I don't feel normal getting this much sleep. She slept for 12 hours last night! Corey even went and checked on her at 8:30 because he was worried. She doesn't even have bags under her eyes anymore.

I feel so fortunate to have a good sleeper now. Her behavior couldn't come at a better time. I've proved I can handle being a full-time student and a mother, but now I have to throw an internship into the mix. In 2 weeks I will be going to school and interning pretty much full-time. I'm kind of nervous, but I know I can do it, and I'm a little excited to communicate with adults again haha. I'm also fortunate that I'll be working at a wellness center- I'm hoping it will motivate me to take my personal health more seriously.

I'm going to enjoy my second week of summer, which is sadly also my last. Life will be getting pretty crazy soon, and it's not going to slow down until December. If you need me this week, you will find me at the pool :)


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

So Proud!

We're not even a week into Kynlee's sleep training, and she has already made me so proud! As you know, last night I gave up and decided to let her "cry-it-out". She surprised me by going to sleep by herself in about five minutes. I had no clue when she would wake up last night, but she surprised us again by not making a peep until 7am! That's even later than she usually sleeps. It was such a wonderful feeling have a baby who put herself to sleep, and slept all night by herself. I felt very well rested the next day.

I decided to give the controversial cry-it-out method another try tonight, just to see where it would take us. After her bath, we sat on the couch together and wound down from the day. Right at bedtime I sat her down in the crib, kissed her on the head, and told her goodnight and that I Ioved her. No surprise, she started crying before I even left the room. Then I received a huge shock! She cried for about 30 seconds, then sat there quietly just like last night. I held my breath, thinking there was no way I would get lucky two nights in a row. About a minute later she laid right down and went to sleep. That was such a good feeling! I am so proud of her.

I'm hoping these good habits of hers will last. I can already tell we are all getting more sleep, and maybe the bags under our eyes will start to go away now.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Progress? Maybe?

I've been feeling very tired lately. I don't know if it's from Kynlee or just life, but I'm feeling the need for a few extra naps throughout the day. Kynlee's sleep training has had its ups and downs as I expected. 

My turn on night #3 wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. She only woke up once. It took about 30 minutes, but we got her to go back to sleep until morning. Night #4 wasn't so good. She woke up quite a few times. Sometimes it didn't take long to get her to go back to bed, but other times it did. Finally around 2-3am it was obvious she just wasn't feeling well. Her runny nose and cough convinced us to let her get in bed with us. I know, I know shame on us! She has been sick for a while, and it was just so pathetic. At least she didn't want a bottle, so I guess that's one good thing. 

We made the mistake of rocking her to sleep for her entire life, so she still expects that at 13 months. We've been planning soon to "teach" her how to fall asleep by herself, but for the time being we just wanted to work on sleeping the entire night again. I kind of veered off the plan tonight when I got frustrated. I put her to sleep at her bedtime, 8:30, but she woke up three times before 9. I felt so beaten down that I decided for the first time I was just going to let her cry it out. I kissed her on the forehead and told her goodnight, and left her alone. I brought the video monitor into the living room so I could keep watch on her. In five minutes I received the biggest shock...she fell asleep! She cried for maybe three minutes then just sat there. To be honest I was a little creeped out watching her sitting in the crib not making a noise. But then she laid down a few minutes later and went right to sleep. I couldn't believe it. Maybe I will follow up on this method tomorrow night and see where it takes us. 

When you first get pregnant, you dream of everything it takes to raise a child. You think of all the things you are going to teach her. I never thought one of the things I would have to teach my daughter was how to sleep. That's something they don't tell you when you have a baby. I wish I knew then, what I know now. At least we will be prepared for the next baby. 

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Oh My... Nighttime torture

Kynlee is a terrible sleeper. WAIT, don't leave yet! I promise this is different than my usual Kynlee sleep rant! We're actually taking steps to making our little night owl a respectable sleeper.

So here is the latest on her status. She used to prefer Corey to put her to sleep. Luckily that has changed, and I'm allowed to lay her down now. She wakes up anywhere from 11-4 to get in bed with us. It's not just waking up though. She frantically claws at us until we give her a bottle of water before she will go back to sleep (which by the way she stopped using bottles when she was 7 months old, so I find it ridiculous that she wants one at night). We never had time to help her change these habits because we were so busy with school and we needed our sleep. So we did whatever she wanted, just so we could go back to bed. Well, we have 2 weeks off from school so this had to change.

We are on night 3 of Kynlee's sleep transformation. We agreed before we started this that we wouldn't give up because it was the easy thing to do. We knew we wouldn't be getting any sleep. But we also knew that in the long run this is going to help us all, and persistence always pays off in these situations.

Corey and I are alternating nights "training" her. I don't want you to see the word "training," and thinking we're putting Kynlee through some awful torture. A lot of people automatically assume that means we're leaving her in the crib to cry. I think sleep training can be taken any way the parents feel comfortable with. We've chosen our own game plan, and I think it will work. I've started by setting a strict bedtime routine. Dinner, bath, bedtime. Same time every night. Babies thrive on routine, so after bath time she will automatically begin to tire. Then the fun begins...

I took night #1. She woke up around 1 am, so I high-fived Corey for good luck and ventured into the chamber of torture. Did I say torture? I'm sorry, I promise we're not torturing her! I pretty much just tried to put her back to sleep without putting her in bed with us, and without a bottle of water because those are our two main goals. Long story short, it took 2 1/2 long hours, using various techniques of rocking, patting her on the back, and eventually crawling in the crib. It was so rough, and she cried A LOT, but I stayed strong. I didn't even cry! But I was super tired!

Night #2- Corey's turn: Jerk got off lucky. Kynlee took it upon herself to sleep until 6am. I forgot to mention that whoever's turn it is at night, gets to sleep in the next morning. So not only did Corey get to sleep all night on his turn, but I had to wake up with her! That is so Kynlee to favor her daddy over me.

Now we're on to night 3, and my turn. I'm betting I'll be up for hours again. I don't get lucky like Corey. So wish us luck. Hopefully last night was a sign of good things to come. Once this works, we'll work on her falling asleep without our help.

For all you non-parental folks out there, or to those parents who had mutant babies who slept through the night upon returning from the hospital- sorry for the blabbering of a sleepy mother who you can't relate to. Not to sound cliche', but you just wait!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...