Sleep Training

As I have shared before, Annabelle has been the WORST sleeper ever.  Beyond terrible.  She slept in our bed until about 6.5 months.  She was waking up like every hour or so to nurse.  I  pretty wanted to die of exhaustion everyday.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a grumpy, mean, impatient person.  Not getting sleep is to me, the HARDEST part about babies.  It may be the reason I only have one more kid.. fo real.  AB (Annabelle) also was the world's worst napper.  She would only nap in her bouncy chair, while I bounced it with me foot.  And these were cat naps at best.

So finally it was  time to change some  things.  We set up her crib in her downstairs craft room/office and I committed to letting her cry it out.  It only took Vi like a week of crying it out to learn to sleep through the night so I had high hopes.  We set a video monitor too just so I would feel a little better about it. 

The first night I kept the monitor on with the sound off, so I could look to see her but not hear every peep.  I set my alarm for every hour to wake up and look at it to make sure things were going ok.  She only started crying once around 1am.  I went down, fed her and put her back down.  She slept till 7!  Wow, I was so impressed with my "non-sleeper".  Since then she has slept through the night!  Are you kidding me?  And why again was I putting off sleep training her?  Once again, I was the problem. 

I continued to check the monitor every hour or two for about a week but now I just keep the sound off all night.  When I randomly wake up I sometimes look at it.  So really, she could be crying a couple times in the night but she seems to be able to put herself back to sleep now.  The only bad part is that for the last week she has been waking up between 5 and 6 am.  ugg.  A little too early.  She goes down around 7:30-8 and Vi goes down at 8.  Both girls are put down wide awake, which I think is super important.. for them and for your sanity.  I do not want to spend an hour getting my kid to sleep every night.

As far as the naps, still working on it.  I put her down awake whenever she seems tired.. either in her crib downstairs or upstairs in the packnplay in our room.  She still has the catnap problem but I have noticed a couple almost 2 hour sessions lately.  Usually only 30 minutes or so tho.  She will get it eventually. 

I am much more rested, much happier, more patient and definitely a better momma and wife.  And AB is a much happier baby.  My third baby has to be a good sleeper, right?