Up All Night: Mommy Post

What happened to my super awesome sleeper? When Harper was 2 and a half months old, she started sleeping 5-7 hours at a time in her bassinet. It was ah-mazing. I thought, holy crap - I am so lucky to have such an awesome sleeper. And what a treat it was, especially being that the first two months of her life, she never slept at night. It was horrible, but Fraser and I pushed through and we were definitely rewarded for all of those sleepless nights. This was when we lived in our apartment, then we bought a house and moved right when Harper turned 5 months old. Then it all changed.
Harper started only sleeping for 3 hour stretches, maybe a 4 hour stretch here and there. It continued to go down hill until now, where I'm lucky if I get a two hour stretch of sleep at a time. Ugh. When Harper was smaller, she would wake up in the middle of the night (not fully) and would nurse and go right back to sleep for 3-4 hours (or more). Now that she's older, she wakes fully in the middle of the night, looking to nurse as this is what she thinks she needs to fall back asleep. So in conclusion - I need to break this association. I started my research and came across these books:

The No-Cry Nap Solution and The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. These books give you suggestions for trying to get your little one to sleep in their crib and to sleep through the night. I'm very against leaving my child to cry, alone, in her crib until she reaches the point of exhaustion and gives up all hope that I'm going to come and give her comfort. Doesn't that sound horrible? Well it does to me. So I was super excited to find these books with the possibility that there might be a way to teach Harper how to sleep in her crib using a more loving and calm approach than the crying out method.

Here's the strategies I thought would be helpful to try with my situation:

- Create a cycle-blender nap: Help your baby sleep from one sleep cycle to the next, you can do this by using for example, a rocking bassinet (which Harper has and sleeps in) to lull them back to sleep if they start to fidget; hopefully getting them to stay asleep rather then waking up after only an hour.

This strategy makes sense but also requires you to be close by, shortly before your baby normally wakes up from their nap, to help them stay asleep so they transition into the next sleep cycle. For Harper, she will usually nap for an hour to an hour and a half. So I would need to be close to her 45 minutes into her nap (to be safe), to help her stay asleep if she starts to wake up.The book suggests picking your baby up the second they make a noise, and helping them whichever way necessary, to go back into a deeper sleep. This may consist of breastfeeding, rocking or offering a soother/pacifier.

- Do a comfort check: Make sure their crib is cozy (warm sheets), the room they are sleeping in isn't too hot or cold. Is the room too light, too dark, too quiet or too loud? Making sure to change their diaper right before nap time and that their clothes are nice and comfy. 

- Create a bedtime/nap time routine and stick to it. Your baby will then have sometime to relax and prepare for bedtime. 

Here's my nap time routine for Harper:

* Fan turned on
* Noise machine turned on (usually heartbeat or the rain setting)
* Cuddles
* Light turned off (have a nightlight always plugged in)
* Breastfeeding (until really sleepy)
* Rock to sleep (this is something I'm trying to get out of the routine)
* Put into bassinet (again, trying to get her in her crib instead)

* For her bedtime routine, she gets a bath first and then we read 1-2 books before lights out and breastfeeding *

- Put your baby in their crib a few times throughout the day, to play with some toys or read some books, to create a positive environment.

My goal is to put Harper in her crib, three times a day, to play. She has a musical fish tank on the side of her crib that she likes along with a light up monkey that also plays music. I would maybe give her a few small toys to also play with, while listening to her musical monkey and fish tank. She used to fall asleep while doing this when she was really small.

- Break the breastfeeding/sleep association. 

This is my biggest challenge as this is what Harper looks for every time she wakes from another sleep cycle at night. I've started to try and rock her back to sleep instead and then once this becomes effective, I will then try rocking her less, etc.,.

It's not going to be easy and certainly not quick. It will most likely take a few weeks. But if I stick to it, I will hopefully see some improvements.

Ugh. All of this cuteness certainly does help with getting up several times in the night!

I love her sooooo much and I think there will come a point where she will be ready to go into her crib, just hope its soon rather than later :).