So much has changed with Harper in the past few weeks, it's sorta insane. Firstly, she is napping in her crib. IN HER CRIB. Whhhhhaaat? A couple of months ago, if I even tried placing her down in her crib for a nap, awake or deeply asleep - she would scream her little face off. I used to try nursing her and rocking her so she was in a deep sleep, and try to get her in her crib without waking her up. Big fail. She would last maybe 20 minutes and then lose her mind. Then I realized the problem with this was that she was waking up, realizing I wasn't there and getting upset, understandably.
Now at this time she was still sleeping, for the most part of the night, in her rocking bassinet. So here I was trying to get her to sleep in her crib, on a flat mattress, when she was used to sleeping on an incline position in a rocking bassinet. Obviously I failed miserably in my attempts. I was beginning to get very frustrated, not at her (obviously) but at our current sleeping situation. Not only was she not sleeping her crib, but she was waking every couple of hours looking for a boob, and wanting to be rocked back to sleep after each waking. So here is the breakdown of what our nights at this time looked like:
- Go to bed 9pm (she's a night owl)
- Wake at 11pm: Nurse (10 minutes)
- 11:10pm-11:30pm Rocking into a deep sleep
- 11:30pm First attempt at putting her back in her bassinet
- 11:45pm Rock her again and second attempt at putting her back in her bassinet (because she woke up the first time I tried putting her down)
- 12am Trying not to breathe too loud because I finally got her back in her bassinet, asleep
- Wake at 2am: Nurse (10 minutes)
- 2:10am-2:30am Rocking into a deep sleep
- 2:30 Try very carefully to put her back in her bassinet
- Wake at 4:30 am: Nurse (10 minutes)
- 4:40 am Rock her back to sleep
- 5am back in bassinet (first try if I was lucky)
- Wake at 7 am: Nurse (10 minutes)
And we would manage to get a few more hours of sleep, usually sleeping in until 9 or 10 in the morning. We both needed the extra sleep, so there was no getting up and starting our day at 7 which I would have preferred.
And this was a good night. Some nights she would wake every hour, hour and a half. I was going insane. One night I had enough. This is what I did.
1) No more bassinet. I had enough with that damn thing. It was our savior when Harper was really small and had tummy problems. The incline sleeping position was the only thing that allowed all of us to get any sleep. However, Harper's tummy problems were no more as of 3 months - so no more need for the bassinet. And obviously the only option at this point was to bring her into our bed as the crib was definitely not an option (unless I was willing to let her cry it out, which I wasn't).
This made the night feedings a lot easier. Anyone who has breastfed their babies, knows how nice it is to lay on your side and breastfeed as oppose to siting up at 3am. So with her sleeping next to me (on just the mattress, no pillows - and pretty much the whole middle of the bed to herself away from our blanket and our pillows), she would wake to nurse and all I would need to do is pull a boob out.
2) Teach her to fall asleep on her own - without nursing or rocking. I was fed up with spending 30-45 minutes getting her back to sleep, especially since she was waking so often in the night. So I started this process by nursing her until she would get really sleepy - and then pulling her off my boob. I would lay her next to me in the bed awake, tell her it was bedtime and let her fidget and whine until she fell asleep.
The first night was the worst. She got pretty upset and her whining quickly turned into a screaming. She was pissed off. She wanted to nurse until she was asleep but I wasn't caving - no more. To Fraser and I, this wasn't the same as crying it out. We weren't leaving her in her bedroom in her crib, alone, to pretty much cry to the point of exhaustion. The cry/whine she was doing was more of a pissed off tantrum that she wasn't getting what she wanted and the whole time I rubbed her belly and kissed her cheeks. There was no sense of abandonment because we were there laying next to her the whole time. I wanted her to learn that she didn't need to breastfeed to fall asleep.
After about 45 minutes of whining she quieted down and fell asleep. Now the whole time this was going on I was gritting my teeth because I hate when she's upset and I normally would have caved and breastfed her until she fell asleep. But I knew this was better for her to learn for herself. From that night on she would wake, nurse for maybe 5 minutes, I would pull her off and she would fidget (no crying) and fall asleep.
So now she wakes up maybe every 2 1/2 - 3 hours, nurses for a few minutes and falls asleep. So instead of being awake with her for 45 minutes to an hour every time she wakes in the night, we're both awake maybe 5 or 6 minutes. I no longer feel like a zombie when I get up in the morning.
3) No more bassinet for naps. While she was sleeping in our bed at night, for a few weeks she was still sleeping in her bassinet for her naps. We also still had her crib in our bedroom. One morning, I just up and decided that I wanted her crib back in her bedroom and I was going to try her in her crib again. I was optimistic because she was doing so much better at night, that I figured now was the time to try her crib again.
I was freaking amazed. I nursed her in the chair in her bedroom, until she was pretty sleepy, placed her down her crib...she opened her eyes briefly and fell asleep. WWHHHAT. At this point I didn't know how she would do - in the past the most I got out of her was 30 minutes. She slept for an hour and 40 minutes in her crib. I couldn't believe it. She even woke up at one point and cried..I went in, rubbed her back and she fell back asleep - fully aware of the fact that she was in her crib.
That was was two weeks ago. She goes down for two naps during the day, each one averaging from 45 minutes - 2 hours...in her crib.
What I think helped with this was transitioning her from her bassinet (incline position) to our bed (a flat mattress) and also teaching her to fall asleep on her own. These two things together is what I believe made a successful transition into her crib during the day.
Now for the night time, I'm wanting to do things slow so I don't mess up a good thing. They say to do things one step at a time when it comes to transitioning a baby who is having a difficult time with the crib. In the next week or so, I will try to get her to sleep for the first part of the night in her crib and then maybe the second part of the night in our bed. My hope is that she will last longer in her crib as time goes on. Fingers crossed. Already I feel a lot better and I think she is doing amazing.
She's getting so big, I can't believe that in a week, she's going to be 8 months. My sweet baby - ugh she needs to slow down! She's eating her solids SO much better now. Before it was a fight just to get a few spoon fulls in her mouth. Now she actually opens her mouth and finishes a whole bowl! This makes me feel so much better, especially since I make all of her food and spend a lot of time and money doing so!
Her favourite foods seem to be:
- Apples
- Pears
- Carrots
- Butternut Squash
I will admit that we buy her organic meat baby food - because I have no desire to be blending up beef or chicken into a puree (I think I would gag).
All in all, these past few weeks have been amazing and she's doing so much better with her sleeping and eating! So proud of my little chub!
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