Small Miracles

Thank the Lord for them!

Tonight is night #1 of trying our new sleep strategy with Charlotte. I bought a book titled 'The Baby Sleep Book' at Marshalls, which I will be promptly returning. It's way too focused on attachment parenting, feeding baby to sleep, etc. I'm looking for a long-term solution, not a quick fix. So, I decided to wing it.

Charlotte began yawning and rubbing her eyes just before 9pm. I took her upstairs and we played with some quiet toys in her room for about 10-15 minutes. While she was playing I was reading my copy of 'Baby 411' which has a section devoted to sleep and reviews some famous sleep books (the aforementioned book got a B-).

One of the books it mentions, and gives the highest grade to, is called 'Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems'. Here's how the author of 'Baby 411' describes the process it recommends:

1. Be consistent with your sleep routine at nap and bedtime.
2. No falling asleep rocking, eating or sucking a pacifier.
3. Comfort object is allowed (after 4 months of age).
4. Get your child relaxed, put her in her crib, and say goodnight.
5. Your child will start complaining.
6. Wait five minutes before returning to the nursery.
7. When you enter the nursery, make your response short and sweet (no more than 60 seconds). Tell your child you love her and say goodnight. Do NOT pick her up, rock her or feed her. Leave the room. The purpose is for you to see that your baby is just fine and for your baby to know you have not gone to Brazil.
8. Your baby cries louder. (No surprise here.)
9. Wait ten minutes before returning.
10. Repeat step 7.
11. Your baby sounds possessed.
12. Wait 15 minutes before returning.
13. Repeat step 7.
14. Wait 20 minutes before returning...

After 15 minutes of play she had a bottle. We read a couple stories, sang a couple songs, said our prayers and into the crib she went. She wasn't happy about our new plan, but I'm happy to say that I only had to return 3 times, so the entire process, from laying her in the crib until she was asleep, was about 30 minutes. We'll see if Mark (he wasn't here during this first experience) and I have the same patience when she wakes up during the night.

Wish us luck!

Oh, and because I am that daring (and foolish) I took a photo of the sleeping bambina. Here she is:

Apparantly somebody does put baby in a corner... baby herself.

UPDATES:

Round #2 took about 50 minutes, but she is back to sleep, and managed to get her socks off.

Round #3 lasted 30 minutes. She then slept for 5 hours, waking at about 6:30am. At that point she got a bottle and a diaper change, neither of which was really needed. Tomorrow we'll try to push past that wakening as well.