Sleep, oh glorious sleep

I started reading a blog about sleeping techniques, more specifically the crying it out method. For those that don't have babies (are you evening reading this?) it can be quite a controversial method. There are two camps out there when it comes to sleep training (from what I gather) - attachment parenting (where you would nurse, rock, generally sooth your baby to sleep) and crying it out (where you let you baby cry for a increasing amount of time). Both camps are equally passionate about their cause, championing it in every corner of the internet.

Ada had been sleeping pretty well through the night, it was just getting her down that was the hardest part. From about ten or eleven weeks she was sleeping from anywhere between eight pm until seven am, with a feed at around ten thirty / eleven pm. But from eight we would put her in the sling and she would sleep on either Dave or I. This was fine but it did mean the other person did everything - preparing dinner, the dishes, laundry etc etc. Then a couple of weeks before we went to Australia we decided to rock her to sleep in our arms and put her down in her cot once she was sound asleep. This would work on the third or fourth attempt - which was usually around nine thirty or ten - still not conducive to a functioning evening for Dave and I. And then when we went to Australia all sleeping techniques were thrown out the window and we did anything to get her to sleep - in the sling, on us, in our bed. Coming home we reverted to the sling, but she was now waking up at around two thirty / three and I would give her a feed and she would sometimes go to sleep, or come into bed with me and Dave would sleep on the couch.

I spoke to one of my NCT mums that I was thinking of doing some sleep training and she is amazing with finding great informative websites. She sent me a couple of links, some which were alternatives to crying it out and the last one which was more down the crying it out route.

This blog said something along the lines 'now is the best time to start sleep training - if you do it later it's too late!'. So armed with a bucketload of mum guilt I said to Dave 'let's try crying it out tonight'. I think he was a bit shocked, but followed my lead and said okay. 

I finished (breast)feeding her at around eight pm, and she was almost asleep but not quite (apparently this is quite important). We put her in her cot and she straight away started crying. We left her to cry for three minutes and then Dave went in and gave her a little pat and some comforting words, but didn't pick her up. Then we left her for five minutes and Dave went in again. And then finally ten minutes. 

It was really hard. She cried a lot. I cried a lot. Dave was getting really affected by it too. My head said we were doing the right thing but my heart screamed 'go in and pick her up and give her a cuddle' But we persevered. By the third time of ten minutes (so roughly forty minutes of crying/comforting) there was silence. Dave and I gave each other a 'is she really asleep?' look. I peeked in and she was. Sound asleep. It was amazing. I thought it would take hours. She did wake up an hour later, at ten pm, and we started it again, but it only took to the first round of ten minutes for her to go back to sleep. 

The second night was much better again. We put her down at eight, she cried, but we got to the first round of ten minutes again and she fell asleep. She didn't wake up until eleven pm, when I gave her her bottle and she fell asleep. She woke up around two am, and I let her cry for three minutes, went to comfort her and then she fell back asleep again until seven thirty am.

Crying it out isn't for everyone, and it has only been two nights. I didn't think I would ever do it, but something during night said give it a go. I think Ada was old enough for it, and I was (sort of) strong enough as well. She's still not perfect. Naps during the day are hard, but fingers crossed we're on the right track.