Watching your baby on the baby monitor in the midst of sleep training is like watching a strange voyeuristic, sadistic free show, that's eerily.. I wouldn't say entertaining, but like.. intriguing?!? Just seeing how your baby progresses (or lack thereof at times, but overall, progress).
I mentioned in my last post that I was going to delay sleep training for a multitude of reasons.
BUT WOW. After having the worst day of my life since Mya was born, I gave in and gave it a try out of desperation.
As I mentioned before, since moving back to SF, her schedule has been out of whack and she's consistently been a nightmare to put down for sleep. She will ALWAYS fight her bedtime and we'd be trying from 8 PM-1 AM on average to put her down for sleep as she's hysterical and crying. It's horrendous. If you've ever even held a hysterical crying baby for 10 minutes, you'll know that it is extremely trying, mentally -- so imagine that for hours... for over a week.
But yeah. Yesterday was the worst I've ever felt. It wasn't exhaustion or tiredness (even though I did only have like 4-5 hours of sleep). It was the mental state I was in. I just felt at a loss and like nothing was going to work. It didn't help that I was sitting in a dark and blacked out room for over 5 hours in the daytime just so that she could nap. I wanted her to be able to get a good nap even if it meant that I had to sacrifice my sanity, just because 6 hours for a baby is just not enough. Babies her age should be getting about 12 hours of nighttime sleep and 4 hours of daytime sleep. I was sitting in the room by myself just reading about sleep training and thinking about sleep trainers. So desperate that even paying $5k for someone to fly from another state to sleep train your baby for 3 days sounded reasonable... yeahh.. I know... THAT'S the kind of state I was in.
It fucking sucks when 1) I'm already in the house all day and taking care of baby 24/7, and 2) on top of that, spending HOURS on end in a dark room every day trying to get her to nap/sleep. Being in a dark cave is not good for anyone's health. And it's worse when you have to hold a 15 pound CRYING weight in that dark cave.
I was looking at TONS of sites and doing lots of Google and Yelp searches and contacted quite a few.. lol. On a July 4th holiday. One of them actually replied to me and went on a quick call with me.. I was just expecting her to give me a sales pitch and then schedule another time to actually do a real consultation, but she actually ended up giving me some tips and advice -- for FREE! Which I wasn't expecting at all. She asked me to give me a run-down of a typical day for Mya, which I did. She told me that my current routine was not sustainable for the long run, and I definitely had to agree (that's why I was in such a horrid mental state!! I knew it wasn't sustainable and I would crack.. just needed a professional to tell me that..). Essentially she told me Mya's days should be starting earlier (around 7 AM) and end around 7 PM and also told me I should be transitioning from a 4 to 3 nap schedule. Did some more Googling about waketimes and sleeptimes and she was definitely right. IDK, I had actually even read all this before (from previous nights of desperation) and it seemed like it would be impossible to implement, so I ignored it all.. until I spoke to a professional. There's one thing of reading things online, and then to hear it from a professional.
That call put me in a better state. Mya did already happen to wake up at 7:20 AM on her own that day, so I figured it was a good time to start sleep training that exact same night. (I already had read a whole book on sleep training a few days prior too and was just waiting to be able to implement it, per the delays I mentioned in the last post..)
SOOO. Yeah. That prompted me to do sleep training.
Like. Fuck it. If she's gonna cry for 4-5 hours at night anyway (for us to put her to sleep), then I might as well try sleep training. The main difference is, I don't have to hold her. I just leave her in the room.
So that's what I did. And honestly, it was easier than I thought and I'm in a much better state for it. Same results at the end of the night, but MUCH LESS effort and much less trying on my physical and mental being. (My mom too!!)
She cried for a total of about 6 hours, on and off. She showed a lot of progress within those 6 hours - be that from exhaustion or from calming herself.. maybe a combination of both! But she did end up falling asleep. She did have a few night wakings, and by morning, she had about less than 6 hours of sleep. Same as the night before I tried sleep training.
We'll see how these subsequent nights go!
I am very encouraged by her progress though and I do want to give it a solid 3 days of trying before I should see if it's something I should continue with. So far, looking good.
Wish me luck!
I mentioned in my last post that I was going to delay sleep training for a multitude of reasons.
BUT WOW. After having the worst day of my life since Mya was born, I gave in and gave it a try out of desperation.
As I mentioned before, since moving back to SF, her schedule has been out of whack and she's consistently been a nightmare to put down for sleep. She will ALWAYS fight her bedtime and we'd be trying from 8 PM-1 AM on average to put her down for sleep as she's hysterical and crying. It's horrendous. If you've ever even held a hysterical crying baby for 10 minutes, you'll know that it is extremely trying, mentally -- so imagine that for hours... for over a week.
But yeah. Yesterday was the worst I've ever felt. It wasn't exhaustion or tiredness (even though I did only have like 4-5 hours of sleep). It was the mental state I was in. I just felt at a loss and like nothing was going to work. It didn't help that I was sitting in a dark and blacked out room for over 5 hours in the daytime just so that she could nap. I wanted her to be able to get a good nap even if it meant that I had to sacrifice my sanity, just because 6 hours for a baby is just not enough. Babies her age should be getting about 12 hours of nighttime sleep and 4 hours of daytime sleep. I was sitting in the room by myself just reading about sleep training and thinking about sleep trainers. So desperate that even paying $5k for someone to fly from another state to sleep train your baby for 3 days sounded reasonable... yeahh.. I know... THAT'S the kind of state I was in.
It fucking sucks when 1) I'm already in the house all day and taking care of baby 24/7, and 2) on top of that, spending HOURS on end in a dark room every day trying to get her to nap/sleep. Being in a dark cave is not good for anyone's health. And it's worse when you have to hold a 15 pound CRYING weight in that dark cave.
I was looking at TONS of sites and doing lots of Google and Yelp searches and contacted quite a few.. lol. On a July 4th holiday. One of them actually replied to me and went on a quick call with me.. I was just expecting her to give me a sales pitch and then schedule another time to actually do a real consultation, but she actually ended up giving me some tips and advice -- for FREE! Which I wasn't expecting at all. She asked me to give me a run-down of a typical day for Mya, which I did. She told me that my current routine was not sustainable for the long run, and I definitely had to agree (that's why I was in such a horrid mental state!! I knew it wasn't sustainable and I would crack.. just needed a professional to tell me that..). Essentially she told me Mya's days should be starting earlier (around 7 AM) and end around 7 PM and also told me I should be transitioning from a 4 to 3 nap schedule. Did some more Googling about waketimes and sleeptimes and she was definitely right. IDK, I had actually even read all this before (from previous nights of desperation) and it seemed like it would be impossible to implement, so I ignored it all.. until I spoke to a professional. There's one thing of reading things online, and then to hear it from a professional.
That call put me in a better state. Mya did already happen to wake up at 7:20 AM on her own that day, so I figured it was a good time to start sleep training that exact same night. (I already had read a whole book on sleep training a few days prior too and was just waiting to be able to implement it, per the delays I mentioned in the last post..)
SOOO. Yeah. That prompted me to do sleep training.
Like. Fuck it. If she's gonna cry for 4-5 hours at night anyway (for us to put her to sleep), then I might as well try sleep training. The main difference is, I don't have to hold her. I just leave her in the room.
So that's what I did. And honestly, it was easier than I thought and I'm in a much better state for it. Same results at the end of the night, but MUCH LESS effort and much less trying on my physical and mental being. (My mom too!!)
She cried for a total of about 6 hours, on and off. She showed a lot of progress within those 6 hours - be that from exhaustion or from calming herself.. maybe a combination of both! But she did end up falling asleep. She did have a few night wakings, and by morning, she had about less than 6 hours of sleep. Same as the night before I tried sleep training.
We'll see how these subsequent nights go!
I am very encouraged by her progress though and I do want to give it a solid 3 days of trying before I should see if it's something I should continue with. So far, looking good.
Wish me luck!
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