So how many of you moms out there are successfull in letting your little ones 'cry themselves to sleep'. I just can't do it!! I've tried now for the past few days to let Leah cry herself to sleep for her morning nap. This is extremely challenging for me. She has not been the worlds best sleeper, for naptime or for bedtime, but she is SUCH a happy baby when she gets her zzzz.. so I really want her to get a good nap in the mornings. We haven't set a great routine because I've been dragging the kids here and there trying to work on the house and run errands, but now I've decided that I need to slow down a bit so that she can get her naptimes in.
Any volunteers to come listen to her cry while I take a walk and pretend she's napping?? I just can't do it. What's the longest you've ever let your little ones cry.. and does it totally ruin it if you go in to give them there binky or to tell them it's naptime?? I need one of those baby sleep experts to come to my house.
Oh, and things are looking on track to move into the house Thanksgiving week.. YIPEE.. hopefully we'll continue to get a lot of good full days of working in before then..
14 comments:
I wish I had some advice for you, but since I have 2 cats and no kids I know nothing about naps. :(
Oh I the WORST at this as well. I get the worst anxiety listening to them cry. I hear of so many people that do it and and what great sleepers there kids are, but I am with you and cant do it. I keep saying I will with the next kid but never do. Sorry, Im not much help. GOOD LUCK!
OK, this is perfect, because we JUST got to the good point after having "sleep trained" Emma. I used the "sleep easy sleep solution" book and I HIGHLY recommend it. I swore never to do CIO, but finally had to resort. Anyway, you do let them cry (after staying up late, running around all day, getting very tired), but you go in and check on them every so often to let them calm down and know that you're still around, just helping them learn to put themselves to sleep. I think it's 5 min, then 5, 10, 15, something like that. The longest Emma cried was 2 hours, but that was only once, at 4am. You have to read the book, because it explains why it is so important to help them be good sleepers. Also, it says to start at night, not naps, because they're more tired at night. Emma was sleeping in 1 min or less after 5 nights, and sleeping through the night. It took about 1.5 weeks for the naps to become more easy, but they finally have. ANyway, I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend the book, but call me if you want more details. Hang in there, I know it's rough!
I was blogstalking and found this post about a mom who did the "babywise" thing to get her daughter to sleep. She kept track of how long she cried for the first week on the program I think, and posted about it here:
http://melissashipp.blogspot.com/2008/11/micro-managed.html
sorry, i posted the wrong link, that is the picture of her schedule. here is the post on crying:
http://melissashipp.blogspot.com/2008/10/cry-it-out.html
We were definitely not good with letting Logan cry himself to sleep! He just barely started sleeping through the night and he is now a year old. Our pediatrician just kept telling us to let him cry it out, but I honestly could not handle it! It made me feel horrible and stressed me out. One night we let him cry for three hours and I finally gave in. I've decided that some kids are just not good sleepers. I think eventually they get it It only took one year for Logan :)
As you already know I wasn't so good at this either! But I know that eventually they learn to sleep...one way or another!! I would come listen while you walked if I were in Logan!! Good Luck!
This is the absolute worst thing you have to do with a little one - I'm so sorry! I had the worst time with Zach, he just cried and cried and cried. But eventually he did learn to go to sleep by himself. It was rough on all of us, but it's something you just have to do. I was better with Hailey and taught her from the beginning to go to sleep on her own - that experience with her was a lot less painful. Keep it up, the trick is to stick to it, no matter how painful it is!
This is a hard thing. I think all kids are different. I am pretty stubborn about crying it out. It takes a lot for me to crack and go in there. My kids have gone close to two hours screaming their brains out. It worked with my daughter but it actually NEVER worked for my son. We did everything perfect for weeks and it just never worked out, he just kept waking up a half hour later and screaming. You can do it, don't give up!
O.k. I've only had one child so far...so I don't know if it works for every child, but crying it out totally worked for our little guy. My brother has four little ones and said it was the only way to go and that I had to try it. I think that routine and consistancy is key, especially at the beginning. We had a before bed routine (whatever you choose...books, bath..whatever) and then I'd put him down (with a binky and blankie). I would only let him cry for about 15 min. (sometimes 20 if it sounded like he was winding down). After 15 min. it didn't sound like he was calming down then I would go into his room and pat his back and let him know I was there. MOst of the time I would stay until he fell asleep. Every once in a while, if he got too worked up I would pick him up and rock him to calm him down. But try not to do this too often. I found that if I had to come into the room and calm him down after the aloted time, if I didn't pick him up out of the crib he did better. Cause he knew that I wasn't going to take him out of the room and it was time for bed. It took about two weeks, doing it for nap and bedtime. But almost on the dot..15 min of crying he would fall asleep. And then after he got into the cycle of things he knew what to expect. We have a great sleeper to this day, sleeps through the night and even askes to go to bed at night time. But the key is routine and to not go into the room during that time period, unless they sound in need. (for me 15/20 min. nothing more,couldn't handle it) The screaming is hard but just try to be busy doing something else like dishes, and remember it will be wonderful in the long run. Hopefully this makes since and helps a little. It is worth it, for you and the baby!
Simon was an awful sleeper! In fact....it's only been recently that he'll actually sleep all night! We tried letting him just cry, but he's one of those kids that pukes when he crys too hard, so that really never worked for us! Good luck!!!
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving on Thursday
Oh man, crying it out is the worst ever! We did it when Macey was 6 months, and I cried in my room while she cried in hers. We were lucky though, she only cried for 40 minutes the first night, and then nothing. I don't know if I could do it if she cried for hours!! I hope you can find something that works for you!
That's SO tough! I think the longest Addy cried was 20 minutes, at night, and it was awful. It worked though. I haven't done it yet with Carter, I haven't really needed to. He goes down fine for his naps, if he cries it's at the most 2 minutes. I am bad though, I usually just nurse him to sleep, at night. So ya, I'm not much help. I think it does help though to start them on routines as early as possible.
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