Cry It Out- Night #4

With Tessa's recent sleep occassional sleep issues (ocassional meaning sometimes she sleeps through the night, and sometimes she wakes up 5 times!) we decided to pick a bedtime strategy and go with it for consistency.

We know she will wake up between 3-4:30 hungry for a feeding, that's just a fact. We also know that if she wakes up and fusses before that that she's almost never hungry...just awake and unhappy, usually chewing on her hand because her paci has fallen out and she wants it back.

So our new strategy is this. If she wakes up and starts to fuss we let her cry for 2 minutes (the idea is then build up to 4 min, 6 min, 8...). When we do have to go tend to her we will NOT get her out of her crib unless it's a dire situation. We rub her tummy, plug in her paci and sing to her.

And guess what- it's working! The first night she wimpered herself back to sleep the third time she woke up- before her two minutes was up. In the two nights since she has been doing well- a couple times she's needed tending to and a couple of times she's cried herself back to sleep. Yay!

I've tried to implement the same technique at nap time and have decided it's really best for her to nap in her crib if possible (instead of in the swing, carseat, pack n' play or on the couch) because she sleeps longer. Twice this week she's taken a 2+ hr nap and you know what?...on those days she's super happy and not fussing much. nappy baby = happy baby....why did it take us so long to figure this out?

Tessa also watched her first Baby Einstein this week. She was mesmorized by it- it's like baby crack! I don't want her to watch it too much but I think we will start to add it in once in a while. And maybe it will make her a genius...who knows.

Sorry no pics. I should have gotten one of her yesterday in her hoody sweatshirt. Fall is here!