Just wanted to update that bedtime and sleeping in general is
much, much better at our house these days! I feel human again after sleeping more than 2 hours at a time...Rosalyn has gone to bed and down for naps easily and slept all night for several days now. Thankfully, she seems to be back to her normal bedtime/naptime routine.
I will admit that I had to use the cry-it-out method which I am not really a fan of (most people who know me know this). However, Rosalyn truly left me no choice. Believe me, I tried
every single trick in the world to help her sleep and adjust to her new bed. My only other option besides letting her cry-it-out was to lose my mind and
I am not kidding! She went from sleeping 11-13 hours straight/night in her crib + a 2-3 hour/nap to 6-8 divided hours/night in her toddler bed + no nap. I decided that since she is a toddler (not a baby) and I know that she is perfectly capable of self-soothing and sleeping well (she has been putting herself to sleep--no rocking--since she was just weeks old and has always been a good sleeper) that I needed to give the cry-it-out method a try.
So, the first night I followed our normal routine and put her to bed as usual. I left her door open with a baby gate in place to keep her in and a nightlight on. I came in the living room and waited while she screamed so loud that I thought the neighbors might call CPS on me. It was not easy for me to just sit here while she wailed for me, but I was strong. The only thing that helped me is that I
know her cries and what they mean...this was definitely
not a hungry/thirsty, sad, cold/hot, uncomfortable, scared, lonely, or sick cry...it was an I-am-mad-at-the world cry! I intentionally had to wait for a night that Jason was at work because he is much softer than I am and he would have never lasted!
She cried for 40 minutes the first night, 10 minutes (mostly just whining) the second night, and 0 minutes the third night. She slept all night without a peep each of those nights and also slept until around 8 am each morning. We are now on the third night of no crying and no night waking. She also resumed her normal naps with no drama. It has been wonderful and I feel like I have my sweet baby back! She was (understandably) a grouchy miserable little girl functioning on so little sleep!
Now, with all of that being said, I cannot imagine ever doing cry-it-out with a baby younger than 18 months...I think that learning to self soothe is important even at that age, but not as important as learning that the world is a safe, happy place and that mom is going to respond quickly and efficiently to your needs (even just emotional needs). With our strong routines and letting her fall asleep on her own, Rosalyn was able to learn to self soothe anyway as a very young baby and put herself to sleep with no crying-it-out (up to this point, anyway). After the past two weeks, however, I will never say never.
Even though I wouldn't do it with a younger baby, I can say honestly that doing the cry-it-out method with my almost 21 month old wasn't that bad and
definitely worth it to have my happy, well-rested baby back!
It might seem like I have written a novel about a mundane topic, but it was a big deal for us!
