Hello! Hey, it’s Me.

Delaney’s Sleep Story, Part 1

From early-January 2006

Delaney is still in our bed. We have worked on night-weaning. We did it VERY slowly. We followed the “plan” prescribed by Dr. Jay Gordon, a co-sleeping expert and author of “Good Nights,” which I highly recommend.

This site explains the technique. We opted to keep her in our bed as we know she isn’t ready to leave yet. Baby Bump will hopefully be more amenable to the crib, b/c his/her big sister sure won’t be leaving. I also recommend “No Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantly. Before actually starting the night-weaning process, I started using some of the EP techniques discussed in her book. I don’t know if it actually helped…

Here’s the back story: Laney was waking up about every 1.5-2 hours - she wasn’t able to sleep longer than one sleep cycle without nursing. I don’t know how long she would nurse - I’d always fall right back to sleep, but the interruptions were getting frustrating. With the pregnancy and my NEED for sleep, we decided to go ahead and start the process.

We decided to do it over the holiday season [2005] since Chris had time off from work and could help during the night if necessary. I realized after starting the process that she would wake 3x during the period of 11-4.

Our goal: Try to have her sleeping *mostly* through the night by the time Bump arrived (due mid-July).

Starting out, I would not nurse her between the hours of 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. - a five hour period. We will extend this time after achieving a regular pattern of sleeping extended hours without waking (5+ hours).

What we did: We did 7 nights of abbreviated nursings. I started with about 3 minutes during the hours of 11-4, then two, then one. We had one night of wakefulness for around 2.5 hours, but other than that, she resettled relatively quickly. She’d get really mad and cry for about 30 seconds, then realize it wasn’t worth it.

We are now on maybe night 15 (?) and I haven’t nursed her between the hours of 11-4 (mostly) since night 8. The third night, she slept for about 6.5 hours without nursing. She stirred a couple of times, but resettled very quickly w/ just a hand to the belly. I thought, “Wow, this wasn’t so bad…” The next night, she was back to waking three times between 11-4 and really didn’t resettle at all until I nursed her around 4.30. Things have gone pretty well the other nights. We did have one night early on of about 2 hours being wakeful (sleeping 15 minutes, waking for 15, etc.). However, last night she slept for 5 hours without waking. We’re hoping we are in the home stretch.

Our current “routine” (using that word loosely): She falls asleep while I rock and nurse her; I also sing to her. I then put her down in bed. She wakes about 45 minutes-1 hour after going to sleep and nurses again. If she goes to bed before 8, she wakes a second time around 10-10.30ish, and I nurse her again. If she goes down around or after 9 (rarely happens), her first waking is between 10 and 11. She then generally sleeps from that 10-11 p.m. waking until about 4.15-5 when I nurse her. She might rouse a little during that period or cry out, but she (generally) quickly resettles and goes back to sleep with a touch. She then wakes around 6 and nurses, and is up for the day around 7.30 or so. She often wakes in the 7 neighborhood for more nursing, and will doze for another 30 minutes to 1 hour.

We’ve been struggling with Laney’s sleep for so long, I’ve done TONS of research and read a bunch of books. We’ve experimented with some other ideas/techniques, but she hasn’t responded to anything until now. Maybe she wasn’t ready, or maybe nothing worked b/c she needs to sleep with us. I don’t know… One thing we did do for a while that I often recommend is side-carring the crib. I wish that had worked for us. I think if we did it again, it would work better now that she’s sleeping a little better. I think this is a great option for a family trying to change the nightwaking pattern, especially partnered with or introduced after night weaning.

Parts 2, 3, and 4 coming later…on other days that I have nothing to blog about!