Crying it out...
For the past few nights (really it's been a good 2 weeks) Eryn has been sleeping horribly! She would nurse for hours and hours to fall asleep, then only sleep for an hour or so at a time. At first we understood because she was sick, but then it just got to be a very bad habit! So, it was time to have her "cry it out" to get to sleep. When we do crying it out, we give her a bath, then I'll nurse her for about 20 to 30 minutes and then I'll put her down drowsy but awake. Then we do not go get her until she's been asleep for at least 6 hours. Here are the "chronicles" of crying it out, I will update daily until she's finally sleeping on her own, through the night without crying!
Night 1 (2/23/10) - I put Eryn down around 9:00pm (about 2 hours later than I had wanted because we went to Menards). But she got her bath and everything and went into bed just fine. She chilled in there for a good 10 minutes or so before she started crying. Then she started crying on and off (more on than off) for about 45 minutes when she finally fell asleep. She normally sleeps on her tummy, but she rolled onto her back (and can't yet roll back onto her tummy) so she slept the night on her back. She would wake up every couple hours and cry sometimes it would be just for a couple minutes, sometimes it would be for a good 20 minutes or more. But it really wasn't too bad. She woke up around 6am and was "talking" to her fishy crib toy. I was going to get her, but then she got quiet and must have fallen back asleep! She woke up for the day at 7:15am!
Night 2 (2/24/10) - Again, I put Eryn down around 9:00pm (late again because of story time). She still got her bath and everything. Again she went into her bed nicely, but started crying after only about 3 minutes in her crib. But the crying only lasted a minute or two. We'll see how the rest of the night goes! ...She only cried for those three minutes and slept all the way until a littler after 7am!! Woo hoo!!!
Night 3 (2/25/10) - Today Eryn went down a little after 8 (after her bath and everything) and it's been about 20 minutes and so far no crying! She didn't cry at all during the night either, then woke up at about 5:45am for the day! Not too bad!!
Night 4 (2/26/10) - Eryn had her bath and went to bed at 8, but she was SO tired that she fell asleep nursing. I hope I didn't get back into that routine!! She did sleep until 3:30 when she woke up and ate then went right back to bed. I figure she slept for 7 1/2 hours and didn't really eat much before going to bed, so hopefully we didn't fall back into old habits!
Night 5 (2/27/10) - We had a bit of a regression last night. I didn't give her a bath like I had been, but I put her down at 8 after nursing and she fussed for a minute, then went to sleep (she also flipped over onto her back again). She then woke up at 11pm crying, and she cried for a good half hour, maybe more. Then she woke up at 1am and cried again for a good 20-30 minutes. Then at 4:15am she woke up again crying...this time I decided to get her and feed her. She ate for 20 minutes then went back to sleep until 8:30am.
3/10/10 - Eryn now sleeps through the night!! We still give her a bath before bed, but she'll go down without any problem and sleep a good 7-8 hours before needing to eat, then will sleep another 2-3 hours! Yay!!!!
*I will also add that Loren and Kaylynn sleep through it all!! They don't hear her crying, even though their room is right next to Eryn's! They all really just get used to each others noises!
