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Sleep training, night five

Let me start by saying, I'm becoming a believer in sleep training. At first, I always agreed with the don't-sleep-train proponents. They say, "Your baby cries because he/she needs you. Don't deny him/her love. Don't deny him/her a bond with you."

Fighting sleep, even while rocking
Now I say, yes, babies cry because they need something. At night and naptime, they cry because they need sleep. They cry because they need me to TEACH them how to sleep.

Sometimes it's hard to learn an important lesson. I've been in those valleys before! But just because it's hard to learn, doesn't mean it's not important. And sometimes tears are part of the process. I've been there, too.

So with that said, moving on to night five.

Night Five
I was on my own for bedtime. Brad had to return to work...what a great employee! I had the girls in jammies in record time--7:15 p.m. Jemma was acting tired, so I nursed her and started rocking. She fought me tooth and nail, so I determined to train her for bedtime sleep, too. I put her to bed around 7:40. It took 40 minutes of crying, screaming, soothing, crying, screaming, soothing to get her asleep, but she did it!

On a side note, Gracelyn was so sweet during this time. She wasn't in bed yet, and was so concerned that Jemma was crying. To distract her, I read her a bazillion books. But every time I went in to visit Jemma, Gracelyn was right there, standing on the crib rail, going "Shhh Shhh. Jemma, shhhhh." Then she sang "Jesus Loves Me." Precious!

During the night, Jemma woke up at 12:30 a.m. That was painful for me, as I had gotten in a "nap" of sorts, so then my body refused to go back to sleep. (In the past three nights, I think I've gotten a total of 6 GOOD hours of sleep.)

Anyway, when she woke up, I DIDN'T HAVE TO GET UP! Yes, that's right. She soothed herself back to sleep! Yay!

Comments

  1. OK. You're talking me into trying it myself with Maia. Glad you're seeing the progress! I struggle with thinking that babies cry because they need something too, so I like that you said they need you to teach them to sleep. :)

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