As many of you know Isla doesn't believe in sleeping. EVER.
She is not a napper and never has been. She resists going down at night and prefers to wake up at least 8 or 9 times and then soothe herself with nursing. I hear this is a common issue :) In Hawaii the last 6 months of sleepless nights came to an all out crescendo-wake-up-call when her 6 wakeups went to 9 wakeups and I swear she wanted to eat the entire night. I literally got no sleep during our entire vacation and realized we were LONG overdue for some sleep training.
I had initially resisted doing it because I was worried we couldn't stick with it which would be unfair to her. Sometimes our schedule is crazy and unpredictable and I didn't want to confuse her. I also felt like she was teething or spitting up a lot--which she is but aren't they always going through something? When it's not teething it's crawling or walking...they're little lives are built of major milestones. I realized her resistance was also a lot of built up sleeplessness and even though she was insanely tires she didn't know how to self soothe. I also had read a lot about the different methods and just wasn't sure what I was comfortable with. Let me just say--after 6 months of no sleep and constant fussiness you become a lot more comfortable with some of the things you were hesitant about. Being informed (ie: reading and research) was a big part of this!
At one point I said to a friend, "I"m so lost. It just seems like her sleep gets worse and worse...I need a sleep counselor, is that a job? WHO DOES THAT?!" .... and after I mentioned it to my Friend, Aura she said, "Oh yah, we just hired a Sleep Consultant for Beau. He's sleeping 12 hours now."
Literally at that moment the skies opened and rainbows sprang from the clouds--this was perfection!
I immediately called Rachel from Childworks who listened to what was going on with Isla. We did a 2.5 hour consultation reviewing her development, her sleep plan and how we were going to get through it (a lot of it is parent coping and rationale also). She sent me a 5 page detailed plan (I thrive on the details!) and we've been following it for the past 4 nights. Isla has been progressively getting her sleep schedule down. She is now sleeping 11ish hours, which is a TOTAL MIRACLE. She goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up at 7:10. I do a dream feed (ie: nurse while she's sleeping) around 4am which helps her "eek" out those last 3 hours. She wakes up happy (totally refreshing!) and ready to play. I love coming into her nursery in the morning when both of us are refreshed and feel good. She now stands at the rail and smiles at me and acts coy while she rubs her eyes and stretches. She still has her moments with little wake-ups which I hear is totally normal. Isla is also not a napper- if we get one nap a day it's a rarity, because of this she has little wake-ups here and there but so far has learned to self soothe through most of them.
Night #1: A BIG bottle of wine was an absolute necessity! (As Rachel texted--"pinot: big, bold & smooth. Perfect choice" - she's obviously a genius)
I texted this to Aura and then cried into a pillow. I figured it was tears for tears in our house that night. Isla and I both needed to cry into our pillows and catch up on our zzz's (Don't worry- she was monitored in intervals so she knew we were there supporting her and her new sleep effort :)
~Isla's sleep routine
(After this we do interval checks. I didn't post our entire plan because every plan is different and based on every baby's development and age :)
xoxo.
S
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