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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!

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