Hell week begins

Today marks the official start of Anya's sleep training. The goal is twofold: 1) To teach Anya how to self-soothe and fall asleep on her own and 2) To get her on more of a predictable sleeping schedule suitable for her age.

To date, I've been rocking Anya to sleep and then putting her down in her crib. Sometimes she wakes up (immediately or shortly after) and screams bloody murder until the second I come in and pick her up again. Then the process starts over (and over, etc). This is no longer working for us and her sleep is suffering for it.

Today we're starting Weissbluth's "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" approach. The next few days are going to be painful for both of us, but I'm hoping that she'll soon be able to fall (back) to sleep on her own. She's so much fun when she's well-rested; and definitely less so when she's not getting all the sleep she needs. I plan to keep track of the next few days here and will check in next week. And if any of my good mom-friends are reading this, expect a hysterical, blubbering phone call from me, begging for reassurance that it's ok to let her cry. Wish us luck!

DAY 1
9am nap I stretched Anya's awake time to make it to a 9am nap. I rocked her in the chair as usual and planned to sing 1 song before putting her down in her crib. She fell asleep in my arms before the song was over. This is not ideal for training purposes, but I'll take it. So far, she's been asleep 1/2 hour and hasn't woken up crying.

DAY 3
Day 1 wasn't too bad - other naps she cried about 20 minutes and slept for about 2 hours. The night bedtime didn't go well, though. Anya cried almost 2 hours and I caved and rocked her to sleep. She finally went down at 11. She woke up several times that night (unlike her). Day 2 wasn't much fun. Morning and afternoon naps she cried about 20-30 minutes and then slept aout an hour. Night bedtime was bad. I put her down at 7. She slept until 7:45 and then cried until 10. We caved and rocked her to sleep. Day 3 is going well. I decided to give her a "lovey" (stuffed animal with a little blanket attached) at nap times and there was no crying! Chris and I decided that we'll soothe her to sleep for the night bedtimes, but let her soothe herself for naps.

According to the book, naps and nighttime sleep are controlled by different parts of the brain and that its ok to have different routines for the two. Her nighttime sleep was never an issue and the last 2 nights it turned into one. So back to the old way and hopefully it will work. Tonight I put her down at 7:35. We'll see how it goes.