Sleep Training

Well, after many long months of multiple multiple night wakings, we decided it was time to suck it up and start letting Angela cry it out at night. Our plan was to rock her to near sleep, lie her down and then go in for "check-in" intervals. First night: 3 min, 5 min, 8 min, 10 min, and then 10-15 min after that, when I'd go in I'd give her a little hug and a kiss, give her a few moments to calm down and then put her back down again.

It took 1 hour and 10 minutes the first night - not fun, but she slept till 5am - holy cow, I fed her and put her back to sleep. She woke up 10 minutes later, cried for about 15 minutes, fell back asleep and then woke up at 7:30.

Second night, it took about 50 minutes for her to fall asleep, but not much crying at all - we watched her on the monitor as she sat in her bed (kind of sad, really) and then eventually just laid down and fell asleep. She woke up at 4, and I couldn't get her back to sleep so I brought her into bed and she fell asleep on her own next to me and slept till 7:30 again.

Third night was a bit tougher, she kept clutching John around his neck and didn't want to let him go, which was very hard for him. Again she slept till 4ish and I brought her in bed.

Fourth night she actually fell asleep on her own in her bed while we sang to her - big improvement from before, and we didn't have to hear her cry. Although, she did wake up an hour plus later but didn't take too much before she fell back asleep.

 Fifth night we were down on the south shore for my brother's birthday and she fell asleep in the car, so that was a bit of a bust because I just laid her in her bed when we got home, but she did stay asleep for most of the night until I brought her in bed with us.

 Tonight was a bit tough, but also easy. We tried singing her to sleep, but it just wasn't working. I finally rocked and then laid next to her until she fell asleep, unfortunately she woke up from the noise of the door shutting (damn door). I let her cry, and she was crying pretty hard, but I only had to check on her once (when I did she had little tears coming down and I felt so sad and held her a bit extra, I could see the look in her eyes that she knew I was going to leave her again) and after 20 minutes of crying she stopped, and then she sat there for 20 more minutes (very still, it was sad to watch) but she did fall asleep on her own.

All in all, it has not been as hard as I was anticipating, which has been a great relief to me. Although, I still hate to see her cry and I hate watching her just sit alone in her bed looking very solemn, it has atleast worked to improve our sleep issues quite quickly.