This is very bizarre for me to adjust to because Caleb was all about sleeping. He put himself to sleep at a very early age, could sleep anywhere and through anything. Sure, we had a bedtime routine that we followed, and we tried to stick to a bedtime, but pretty much when Caleb looked tired, we put him down. Scott even recalls a time that he had something to do in the living room, so he put Caleb in his crib so that he would be safe and returned 5 minutes later to a sleeping baby. No. Joke.
When Chloe first came home from the hospital, she was frightened of her crib - I think it was just too big of a space for her little brain to fathom. We then tried having her sleep in the blue chair that Christy bought for us (Note: Caleb spent weeks 5-9 in this chair due to the severity of his reflux). The chair would work for a while, but she would rarely nap beyond 20 minutes. Keeping her asleep was easy -- if she slept on you or beside you which is how I ended up sleeping in the nursery. We have a double bed in there, which I guess she will use at some point, and that is where we fitfully sleep together, night after night.
Chloe
Caleb
Plus, there was the whole ordeal of getting her to sleep. Rocking, bottles, nursing, singing, pacing, bouncing - you name it, we tried it. Of course, at the advice of lactation consultants, we did not use a pacifier for the first 3 weeks of her life, and she didn't really take to it that well when we tried to introduce it later.
It has not been for lack of trying that she has slept in the bed with me. I have tried over and over again to put her in her crib or the blue chair, but she would not have any of it - or only for 20 minutes at a time.
This past weekend, I decided that I needed to do something pro-active about the sleeping situation. Scott graciously gave me Sunday afternoon to myself and off I went to Borders, planning to buy a book about the Ferber method. When I found the parenting section, I was surprised at the number of books on sleeping. I finally narrowed it down to three: The Ferber Method, Healthy Sleep Habits: Happy Baby, and The Baby Whisperer. After briefly skimming, I decided the Ferber method was not for me. We had just spent at week with my niece (who has colic) and letting a baby "cry it out" did not sound like something my nerves could handle.
After getting home and reading both books, I decided that the Baby Whisperer had a method that I felt that I could handle. The premise behind the whole book is putting your child on a routine. In a three hour time frame you feed your child, do an activity with them, and then put them down for an hour and a half nap. You put your child to sleep by tapping their backs while in the crib using a heartbeat rhythm and repeating "Shush". You go to your child when they wake up and help them fall back asleep using the same method. You repeat at 7, 10, 1, and 4, with a bedtime of 7:30 following a bath.
We have been following the plan for two days now, and while Chloe isn't totally on schedule,(she fluctuates between 2.5 and 3 hours) she is successfully sleeping in her crib! (Four hours straight last night!) I know that at 11 weeks this wouldn't be a milestone for some parents, but I could jump up and down I am so excited that we have found something that works for her!
I hope that I haven't jinxed it by writing about it! Last night at 9:00 I was walking around the house. Scott looked at me funny and said "What are you doing?" I told him "I don't know what to do with myself. It's 9:00 and I am not frantically rocking a baby to sleep. I feel weird." He just shook his head and laughed.
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