Saga of Sleep, Week 1

Unbelievable. It's been 10 days since we started to let Faith sleep on her own, and we've had success everyday!
The first week was the hardest, because she cried for more than an hour each night, and when she woke up at night, she would cry again. It was the most stressful week ever and thought I would give up. But telling myself 'this is for her own good'.. that got me through each crying spell.
Now finally after 10 days, she sleeps at 6:30 p.m. and wakes up twelve hours after!
She actually napped well too and would often get more than four hours of naptime. That by itself was a big beautiful bonus. I could only get her to nap two hours a day prior to this. Of course, having a rigid schedule of wake, sleep, eat and play was the key --
Once awake at 6:30 a.m., I would get her and open her bedroom lights so she'd get that "morning light" effect. She'll have 4 oz. of milk, and then we'd play a little in our bedroom and watch Daddy get ready for work. At 7:30 a.m., I would give her breakfast and then soothe her to sleep with another 4 oz. of milk. She would nap for more than an hour and wake up around 10:30 a.m. That gives me time for myself (yehey! never used to have this too).
By 11:30 a.m,, she'll be eating lunch with us and at 12:30p.m. I'll soothe her to sleep again for an hour or two of nap. She's learned to ask for milk too, so when she wakes up in the afternoon, she'll say "de-de-de-de-" as a hunger cue.
5:30 p.m. is dinnertime, followed by a bath and then off to sleep she goes for the night.

Saga of sleep, Day Three

It is now 7 in the morning of the next day. For the first time, I SLEPT straight through the night. I opened Faith's room and there she was, sitting in her crib, awake. She wasn't crying. Hopefully, she too had slept through the night.

Saga of sleep, Day Two

This is a new day. Today, we are sticking to our goals. Today, we teach Faith to sleep unassisted. But some changes need to be made. I am letting her sleep in our bed so I can get her to nap and put some deposits into her sleep bank.

So, I woke her up at 7 a.m., turned on all the lights and simulated morning sunshine. I had her fed and changed by 8:30 a.m. and watched for signs of drowsiness. Ten minutes later, I started to soothe her; I gave her warm milk (from the bottle) and rocked her until she was sleepy. Like yesterday, I placed her in the crib (I was still hoping!) and as before, she cried. I only left her for 30 minutes this time. She was wide awake when I got her. Wide awake and all wired. I had to get her to nap! SO, once again, she napped in our bed. This time, she fell asleep for two hours! Ching... sleep deposit made...

Afternoon. I decided to just let her nap in bed. She fell asleep on her own, without having to breastfeed. Yehey! Victory... She slept for one hour, woke up briefly, and slept again for another two hours. I ended up sleeping with her, so ka-ching, small sleep deposits for both of us.

It's now 6:30 p.m.. Faith had been fed, massaged and in her pjs. It's now time to put her to sleep. I gave her the bottle, hubby turned on her lullaby, and we prayed for her. She's now sleepy and ready for the crib. We closed the room and waited. Of course she cried! And she was at it for two hours - whimper, cry, scream, wail, sob,scream, whine. I can hear her cry "boo-boo-boo", something she says when she's not feeling well. Good thing she can't say "mommy" or "daddy" yet, otherwise it would have been too much. Finally, she was quiet by 9 p.m., and only the occasional protest until 11 p.m. Hubby reminds me not to breakdown, and I do all I can to have a heart of steel. I purposely didn't put the monitor in our room so that I won't hear her sobs, but we opened our door so we'll wake up in case she screams.

We all sleep.

Saga of Sleep, Day One

Today, we train Faith to sleep unassisted.
She woke up at 7 a.m. and I had her soothe to sleep by 8:30. I placed her in her crib, almost asleep. Her back arched the moment it touched the bed. She jumped up and cried. I closed the door and left her for one hour. She cried the whole time. She's definitely NOT temperamentally easy, at least not in the sleep category.
I tried again that afternoon at 12 noon. The same thing happened. She cried, whimpered, played in the crib crying, but couldn't get to sleep. Her eyes were dark and puffy and I know she's very tired now, so I had to put her back in bed with me and let her nap. Maybe I should get her to sleeping well first before I can transfer her to sleeping alone.
So tonight, we prepared her for bed at around 7 p.m., and got her to sleep. In bed with us. Tomorrow is another day. Needless to say, we were still waking up every hour or two as Faith was... Nobody said this was going to be quick, or easy. But we're not giving up. She will learn to sleep. That was our prayer as hubby and I drifted off and on to sleep...

Sleep Training; the resource

We started on the adventure of Sleeping Through the Night.
I'm using the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby" and I've become convinced that this is the way to have Faith sleep through the night. There may be other, less abrupt methods of sleep training, but the book makes sense. I am going to adjust it accordingly, though, because in spite of it all, I am the mom and I know what's best for my baby... On to the book -
The author is Dr. Marc Weissbluth, a pediatrician who founded the Sleep Disorders Center at the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Impressive resume.
The author teaches more than just getting the child to sleep through the night. It also teaches about age-appropriate naps and how napping contributes to better sleep in infants, toddlers, school-age children and teenagers. The first chapters of the book talk about the importance of sleep in infants and children, and how sleep deprivation and "low-level chronic sleepiness" in infants can lead to emotional or psychological problems, learning difficulties, and even obesity later in life.
Better sleep is a product of sufficient naps, consolidated sleep (sleep through the night; nap for more than one hour), regular and consistent schedule of waking up, wakefulness,and sleep, and sleeping early. The author prescribes the following -(from 4-12 months) to wake the baby up at 6-7 in the morning. Take a 1-2 hour nap between 9-10 a.m. (or one to two hours after waking, depending on how sleep deprived the baby was). Take a 1-2hour nap around 12-2 in the afternoon (or 3 hours after waking from the first nap). Take a late afternoon around 4 p.m. but not let the baby sleep more than one hour and not after 5 p.m. (around 9 months, this last nap starts to disappear). Start the bedtime routine at 5-6 in the evening and put the baby down (or lie with the baby) sleepy but awake, around 7 p.m. Emphasis is definitely given for a consistent, regular schedule of sleep. In each sleep, have 10-30 minutes of soothing down the baby to a point of drowsy calmness, but put the baby down in bed or crib awake.

Crying to Sleep? When a baby's temperament is easy, there may be no crying when sleep starts. For temperamentally difficult or post-colic babies, there may be some crying involved. The author says there are several ways to put the baby down - either lie with your child until sleep happens (Method A), or put the baby in the crib (method B). For those of us who've used method A and want to transition to B, there may be some crying involved. Should we decide to use method B, we can leave and let the baby learn to sleep alone unassisted, until either the nap is over (about one hour) or the next morning. This is the cold-turkey approach or the extinction method. There is a gradual extinction as well, similar to what Ferber says. However, the author points out that with the gradual methods, there is a longer training period and hence a greater potential for the parent to be inconsistent because of changes in daily routines and schedules, or give up because it's taking too long for change to happen. In the end, he says the extinction method is the most effective, fastest way to train a child to sleep... That there may be a lot of crying is the most difficult part of it on the parents. Dr. Marc Weissbluth says we're not making the baby cry. Instead we are training the baby to sleep; crying is a way for the baby to protest. He reminds parents that this is not the first or last time we're letting our baby cry. There are many times in the future where we'll have to be tough on our children for their own good, cry though they will... In this, I realized, sleep training my children is also training me to have tougher stubborn love for them.

So, here's to my own saga of training Faith to sleep.

Sleep Training

This week we start training Faith to sleep unassisted. She's ten months old now and still isn't sleeping through the night. Part to blame is her ezcema and dry skin, which seem to bother her the most at night. Also to 'blame' is her co-sleeping with us. (and I say, blame loosely because I hate to admit that we caused her this problem in the first place...) She's gotten so used to our scent and nursing to sleep that she won't sleep anywhere else, not even in her own crib for naps. In retrospect hubby and I don't regret having her co-sleep with us. We love it, even now. As first time parents, the novelty of having a baby, of looking into her beautiful angelic face, her breathing seemingly in rhythm with ours... that's something we will always cherish.
But now, it is time to move on. We are ready to let go (just a tiny bit!) and let her sleep in her own crib, in her own room.
The training to sleep, though, is the difficult part.

Here's what we plan to do - (aka goals) -
1. teach her to sleep unassisted. She hasn't learned to sleep on her own, and always used to need either me nursing her, or dadddy patting her to sleep. She also hasn't learned to fall back to sleep on her own. UNASSISTED. There's no other way to teach her this but let her be. No assisting from us. No more breastfeeding till she's zonked out, no more patting.

2. teach her to consolidate her sleep, that is, to sleep through the night (which means having the ability to fall back to sleep should she wake up)

3. nap sufficiently. at ten months to one year she should still be napping twice a day (morning and afternoon) for 2-4 hours a day. She's been waking up after only 45 minutes and because she can't go back to sleep, she's overtired.

Let the training begin.

Dealing with Allergies

It was a sad day when the doctor called to tell us Faith really does have allergies to milk. And eggs, peanuts, wheat and soy. What else can the poor girl eat?! I guess the key is home-made baby food. Thankfully, this website is a great resource of recipe and menu for baby food. It even has a section for dealing with allergies in infants and children.

Unfortunately, for me, I'm still breastfeeding. I too have to cut back on allergens that I could pass on to my baby. OW! For the love of food! How will a chocoholic, ice-cream loving person like me cope?! Now I know first hand what it feels like to "abstain".. maybe that will make me more compassionate (and self-controlled).
BUT -
... The day will come someday when I can have my java-chip frapuccino...