Sleep Training Our Infant (10 months old)

Just wanted to take a minute to brag on my big girl!

We've been working on falling asleep on her own in her crib at night. She's been sleeping in her crib since she was a month old. From the beginning we said we are NOT going to let her sleep with us. She slept in a bassinet for the first month because 1. We were new parents and wanted her right there beside us and 2. I was nursing and she was waking up every 2-3 hours to eat so it made it easier to feed her and get her right back to sleep. Before she was born we agreed that she would start sleeping in her crib when she was a month old. By that time she was only waking ip once or twice during the night to eat so it made it a little easier to make the transition. On October 27 (we were a couple days late) she slept in her crib for the first time. And on October 31 she slept through the night! Until 8:00 the next morning! I knew I loved Halloween for a reason :)

But even though she's been sleeping in her crib for 9 months we got into the habit of rocking her to sleep every night. When she was real little I loved rocking her and being able to hold the little angel while she slept. And don't get me wrong, I still love it! But it's much more difficult to get her to sleep now. What works one night doesn't necessarily work the next night. So we figured its [past] time to train her how to fall asleep on her own.

I'm not a huge fan of cry it out. Generally if she cries for more than 10 minutes I will go in and try and comfort her. This is only night number 3. The first night we took her in her room, read her a bedtime story, told her night night, turned on her musical Minnie to "Twinkle Twinkle" and sang to her, and then layed her in her crib. She stood in her crib and cried and cried. Finally I went in and picked her up and she fell right to sleep on my shoulder.

The second night we did the same thing, layed her down, and she cried for less than 10 minutes then went to sleep. We were proud of her then!

But tonight we did our same routine, layed her down on her back, and wouldn't you believe it, she didn't cry or make a noise, she didn't even move! We walked out of there like "I hope something's not wrong." So we went back downstairs and watched her on the monitor. She didn't budge and fell right to sleep laying on her back (normally she rolls right over and lays with her butt in the air!) 

When we went back in to check on her about 45 min later she had rolled over and was sound asleep. I am so proud of this girl!

All you have to do is stick with it and these little Einsteins will learn quick!

I'll keep you posted on how the rest of the week goes

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