Sleep.

Several people asked about the method we were using to help Elna sleep.  I mentioned it in my last post.  I was hesitant to expand on it because I know that everyone has different opinions on sleep training.  And many people don’t believe in sleep training.  I was one of them.  Before I had E I thought for sure I would be able to let my baby cry it out.  I had read a little about it and understood it’s pros and cons, but thought I would do it .  But then I had E and everything changed.  I just loved holding her (what mother doesn’t?) and sleep didn’t seem to be too much of an issue for her.  In fact, she was sleeping mostly through the night relatively quickly and did so until she was about 3 months old.  Then she stopped suddenly, and completely reverted to eating every 3 hours during the night.  I was totally confused!  What had happened to my good sleeper? 

Well, after a month of getting up every 3 hours to feed her during the night, and rocking her to sleep every time I put her down,  I took her to her 4 month checkup and told her doctor about what was happening.  She suggested having Elna go cold turkey crying it out, which is like 5-5-5 (Ferber method), but worse.  I’d only heard of a very few people who actually did that with their babies.  I know a lot of people who have done 5-5-5, but not so many who just didn’t go in at all.  When I got home from the doctor’s I told Brian what she said and I talked to a cousin of mine who does the Ferber method.  We decided to do Ferber at first, but noticed that every time we went in she cried worse and worse and for longer and longer.  Finally, we decided to do what Dr. Mary told us to do and not go in at all, and she fell asleep pretty quickly.  We have decided to stretch her sleep out slowly so that she doesn’t have to do 12 hours all at once.  Right now she is sleeping between 7-8 hours before I go in and feed her.  Within a few weeks we hope to stretch that out to 10-12 hours. 

Dr. Mary also suggested that we stop swaddling Elna since she spent so much time trying (and eventually succeeding) to get out of it.  Poor Elna had a lot of change all at once, but she is doing so well!  She is such a happy girl.  She is now usually happy when I put her down for naps and bedtime.  I miss cuddling her to sleep, but I just cuddle her lot’s when she’s awake.  I love that she has learned how to put herself to sleep—what a great skill for her to have!

Her newest trick is rolling from her back to her tummy.  She slept most of the night on her tummy last night.  She looks so much more comfortable on her tummy!

This was from this morning when we went in to get her—on her tummy and happy happy, with some great bed head!