Sleeping Problems Intervention Day Six, Day Seven and Day Eight

AHHH these last few days, Lina<3, your sleeping habits have not gotten any better, and it is so inconsistent. Mommy knows that you are tired. Let examine it:

Day Six (9/18/12):
Nap time was good, slept 4 hrs total, was that too much?

bedtime routine did not change, yet your night was not smooth, it was filled with crying and screaming, constant night time wakening, constant pats on your back, and constant night time feedings. Oh, there was a lot of scratching of the head, your eyes, your ears. A lot of tossing and turning. It was so sad to see because I was doing the best I can to help you sleep with little success.

Day Seven (9/19/2012):
Two naps, and each time, you did not fall asleep easily, cried, screamed, cried, for almost 20minutes at a time. Needed constant consoling and patting on your back. Once you did fall asleep, you did not stay asleep for more than one hour and half.

Bedtime routine went fine and as scheduled.  woke up one hour and half later, cried, (your Daddy told us in the morning that's why he decided to sleep on the couch, just as you woke up and started fussing and crying lol, the nerve of him) hard to put back to sleep, nursed, then up two hours later, cried, nursed, then up two later, and it all went downhill from there, every hour you were up, cried, and fell asleep.

Day Eight (yesterday):
Your two naps, one in late morning, and late afternoon, were not easy. You cried and cried right after Mommy left the room. Mommy already laid you down to sleep, said " Mommy loves you and now go to sleep" and patted your back. You had a high pitch screaming cry (which is a new noise that you have not made before this week). It is heartbreaking listening to you cry before falling asleep. Mommy only had to go back into the room twice before you settled down and slept.

Our bedtime routine of played, showered, diaper changed, moisturized, brushed hair, read your bedtime book, and a bottle of breast milk withcereal, went as planned. You still fussed and cried just as Mommy laid you down on the crib, and then as soon as Mommy patted your back, you drift off right away, but right before Mommy left the room, you screamed and cried, and got up right away and stood at the other end of the crib, by the doorway. It took an hour and half before you fell asleep, and four times, Mommy went back to the room to soothe and pat your back. Mommy did not let you cry more than 15-20minutes. Mommy knew you were tired and did not understand why you did not want to fall asleep, usually you fell asleep after the second time Mommy goes in to check on you. Finally after an hour and half, picked you up and put on Mommy's bed and laid down with you. You dozed off right away and finally asleep after 10minutes. After 20minutes, you were transferred to your crib. You slept for three hours, then up, cried, screamed, stood up on crib, and made a lot of noise; then into Mommy's bed for a feeding and asleep you went and slept another three hours (with Daddy and I on our bed); up after another three hours and fed, and then morning time.

Ahh, I don't understand why the "crying it out" method is not working as well as it did a few days ago. Lina's<3 sleeping habits are still so irregular and the crying has gotten worse. Should we continue to stick this out or try something else? Would it be easier to train you to sleep if you had your own room? Is is the teething process that is making it harder for you to sleep longer periods of time? Are you overtired? Lina<3, I wish you could answer these questions for Mommy so I can help you.

Sleeping Problems Intervention Day Five

Yesterday for the most part was a good day. Sleeping was fine as well. Took two naps yesterday, one late morning and the other late afternoon. Both times, you went to sleep easily, as soon as you laid down on your crib. Mommy patted your back a few times and did not have to come back to room at all, once I left.

Last night was an okay night. Upstairs by a certain time, showered, diaper changed, moisturized, brushed your hair, read “Good Night, Moon”, had bottle of breast milk with cereal, brush your teeth. You fell asleep right away as soon as you laid down on the crib and after a few pats on the back. You slept for six hours straight. Wow! the longest you ever slept and the longest Mommy ever slept. After the six hours, you woke up, you had your diaper changed and was nursed but did not fall back to sleep, instead stayed up for an hour and the half. Then needed to be nursed in order to sleep and ended up sleeping with Mommy in the bed. Was up two hours later and needed to be nursed to sleep again. Then it was morning. Okay, Mommy is making the decision not to nurse you at night time any more, no more picking you up after you go to sleep and wake up, and will change your diaper while you are in your crib and with the lights off!

The crying it out method appears to be working well and teaching you to go to sleep and stay asleep longer for the most part. The days and nights keeping coming, we hope that you will become a better sleeper.

Sleeping Problems Intervention Day Three

We are continuing the "crying it out" technique, and it is getting easier to put Lina<3 down to sleep. During yesterday's nap times, you could sleep from one to two hours at a time. During last night, it was still a little harder to put you down to sleep, but it was better than the first night, three nights ago. The patting on your back soothes and calms you down and let you know that Mommy will always be there to comfort you. The first night, you would cry through the patting on your back, and now it soothes and makes you drowsy. You had slept longest last night, five hours at a time, woke up a few times and needed to be patted back to sleep, and nursed you once. I am slowly decreasing your constant night time feedings to one or two a night, which will eventually stop when you can sleep through the entire night. So please continue to wish us luck!!

Please refer to Day One and Day Two for our routine schedule, if you like read more about it for naps and bedtime.

Sleeping Problems Intervention Day Two

The “crying it out” technique has come in handy for us with a couple of tweaks of our own. Yesterday was a good day for sleeping with Lina<3. You were hard to put down.

During yesterday's nap time, the crying it out technique was used, as it was suggested that all sleeping time routines should be consistent. So here it went:
Nap time routine:upstairs, played on Mommy’s bed, diaper changed, wiped down, moisturized, brush hair, bottle of milk, burped and into the crib you went; kissed forehead, said “Mommy loves you”, laid you down, patted your back for one minute, left the room, and you heard me leaving and started crying even though you were drowsy; waited two minutes, back into the room, wiped tears and laid you down, said “Mommy loves you, it is okay, now go to sleep”, patted your back for another minute, left the room as you were drifting off. Sleep after a few minutes. Hooray!
So that was easy for nap time. Bedtime has the similar routine but it took a little bit longer.

Bedtime routine: upstairs by 7:30pm, played on Mommy’s bed for 20minutes, bath time, moisturized, diaper changed, brush hair, bottle of milk with cereal, burped, brushed your teeth and gums, and into the crib you go, as you cried out when being laid down; said “Mommy loves you, it is bedtime, and go to sleep”, patted your back for one minute, left the room as you cried a little when you notice Mommy was not there; waited two minutes, went back to the room, wiped your tears, laid you down, said Mommy loves you, it is okay, and go to sleep”, patted your back for another minute, and you started to drift off, but as soon as Mommy left the room, you cried, and stood up (Mommy saw you  as you crawled really fast to the other end of the crib to stop Mommy); waited 4minutes, went back to the room, wiped your tears, laid you back down, said “Mommy loves you, it is okay, now go to sleep”, patted your back for another minute, as you drift off, left the room, as you whimpers as Mommy left the room, the whimpers got louder but you did not get up; waited ten minutes, went back to room, patted your back, left the room and but this time you had fell asleep before Mommy had to come to the room. You slept for three hours before waking up screaming your head and unable to be console. Mommy picked up and nursed while lying down, lol we both fell asleep on Mommy’s bed, bad, I know! When I woke up you were transferred to your crib, and you stayed for five hours (which was basically morning when you woke up again). There was only two times where Mommy had to come to you when you awoke and couldn’t fall asleep on your own and patted your back. It was the greatest five hours of sleep Daddy and I got, even though you did wake up at 5am! Hooray!

You are learning slowly to fall asleep on your own. So far so good. Wish us luck !