We've been waiting until she was in her own room to get her to fall asleep on her own. So, last night was the night. We bathed her and took her into her new room, where the lights were dimmed, and put her nightgown on, fed her, and read her a story. We decided we would put her down and take turns going in every three minutes to soothe her without picking her up. We were fully prepared to do this for a couple of hours, since our little girl is very stubborn - something she gets from her parents, who are both oldest children.
We put her down and the screaming began. And it was all God that there were not tears downstairs too, as we listened to her cries through the monitor. I felt like my heart was being stabbed over and over! But we stuck with it, and went into her room every three minutes. It didn't seem to really be helping at all, but after 33 minutes she began to quiet down, and when it was time for me to check on her a couple of minutes later, she was sound asleep. After only 35 minutes! We were shocked! And proud of ourselves for sticking with our plan and super proud of our little lady for falling asleep on her own so quickly for the first time. And this morning we were even more proud of her when she slept for 8 continuous hours!
I do not think the hard part is over, but the first battle is over and we all survived.
1 comments:
Good for you!! The first night is the hardest, for sure. For her AND you. And seriously, it DOES get better!! But I'll warn you that there's no predicting what's next.
One story to scare you - we did that with Rachel and she cried every night for weeks. In fact, she STILL sometimes cries when we put her down at night (like she did tonight - and she's nearly 2).
One story to warn you - we just started this process a couple of weeks ago with Lauren. We haven't had to get her up during the night since we started - but we do have to replace her pacifier every few hours, which makes nights still a bit difficult.
And one story to completely encourage you and convince you that you have no more worries - as soon as we started that with Rebekah, she slept great through the night every night and didn't cry at all in going to sleep. It's been a year that we've been doing this with her and I can count on one hand the number of nights that she has cried.
Nature vs nurture? I am completely on the side of nature. We've "nurtured" our girls in almost identical ways - with vastly different results. So just rest assured that you are doing the right thing, no matter what Lucy's response! Here's hoping she sleeps through the night every night from now till she's in college! :)
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