I don't know if we admitted it back in November but we tried to get Lucy to soothe herself to sleep using the "cry it out" method. Basically, she was supposed to cry herself to sleep and after a few days she would no longer cry to sleep and not need our help. Well....it didn't work then. It was horrible. We felt horrible...she screamed for over an hour and we gave up after three days.
Well...the sleep has been getting gradually better and we decided that we would wait until she had a few more motor skills. Like being able to get the binky in her mouth and moving around on her own. That time has come and we're both tired of getting up and down at night to help her move through her natural sleep cycles. It had gotten to the point where I had to put my hand on the mattress so she could rest her hand on top of mine and then she would fall asleep. Sometimes I had to sing because the music that was playing wasn't working.
She discovered our new plan last Sunday. I hesitated to share this in case it is a fluke but I am feeling pretty confident. Sunday night we had her cry it out again. I went to bed and put my earplugs in while Rodney took on the first shift of crying duty. I expected to be up later in the night to repeat the process. It takes a lot of patience, stamina and emotional endurance to listen to the screaming. And in a small house you can't just move to a different room to make it go away.
After 40 minutes of crying she was asleep. She slept until 7:30 the next morning. On Monday, I followed the same plan for her nap. She went down easy like normal but woke up after 30 minutes like she has for almost every nap for the past 7 months. I usually have to work very hard to get her back to sleep at this point. Sometimes helping for close to an hour. I left her alone that day and after 10 minutes of crying she was back to sleep and slept for a total of 3 hours. Last night she cried for 13 minutes before bed and slept until 7am this morning. She hasn't made a peep during today's nap and we're going on 2 hours.
It's amazing!!! I think we're going to see some changes in her personality. She often acts pretty hyper and can rally through sleepiness if there are people around. She'll tense her body and lose patience in anything she is doing. She'll also do a lot of squealing when she's tired. I am curious to see how she is when she is rested and calm. I'm so happy about this I can barely stand it. I'm already feeling the benefits of a full night's sleep!!
YEAH!!!!
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