This week we embarked on sleep training. For those of you who have spent very much time with us in the last few months, you probably know that our days consisted of me holding Kate all day and almost all night long. Lately, she would not allow me to put her down, and if I tried she would wake up and cry immediately. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE to hold her, but I didn't know how much longer we could go on like this. My arms were about to fall off (Kate is over 16 pounds now), and my back was feeling the love too... Plus, I could not get anything (and I repeat ANYTHING) done around the house.
When we took Kate in for her four month check-up, our pediatrician said that she was old enough to let her cry some. Since most sleep training methods include crying, I wanted to get his approval before we began. Well, let's just say that Kate did not agree with our pediatrician's assessment of her ability to" cry it out" and did not handle the crying well at all--not even for 5 minutes. She was hysterical, and as a result so was I! What were we to do? Robby was about to have two crying girls on his hands!!
Then I started doing some research on "no cry" sleep training methods, and I came across "Good Night Sleep Tight" by Kim West, who calls herself the Sleep Lady. Well, her method sounded hoakie to me, but I was willing to try anything. Basically it involves sitting next to the baby's bed and letting them learn to fall asleep with you right there next to them to soothe and comfort them. After a few days, you start moving the chair away from the crib and eventually into the hallway. This is called the "Sleep Lady Shuffle."
The first few times it took almost an hour for Kate to fall asleep and more "sh sh shing," patting, etc. than I care to admit. But now Kate is falling asleep for naps and at 7pm for bedtime in her crib, and it only takes about 5-20 minutes for her to go to sleep. The best part is that she has shed very few tears in the process. I feel like we have had a miracle in our home, and I thank my lucky stars for the Sleep Lady!
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