We were lucky with Jackson on sleeping habits. He has been sleeping through the night since 2 months old and only needs us during teething or having growing pain. So I didn't know what is sleep training and why every parent talks about it.
I hoped for same sleeping traits for Norah but alas, she is different. Despite a few random night she slept through which I always followed up with a celebration and memo of what might lead to it, she has been consistently woke up once a night till last week's sick episode.
She was up 3 to 4 times a night when she was sick. And I jumped up the first sound of her cry, fearing her temperature would rise again. Every time she would want some milk to calm her down and settle back to sleep. She recovered from her ear infection and some viral infection a couple of days ago, and I discovered in dismay that she got used to the comforts I provided in the middle of the night and still woke up 3 to 4 times a night!
I started to research in sleep training and decided to put a stop to this exhausting nonsense. Last night was my first sleeping training day of Norah. I am going by baby steps. First I am planning to substitute milk with water, so she doesn't count on a night diet and she could have good teeth cleaning habit. She wouldn't have it last night. Every time I fed her water, she would drink a few minutes and spit the nipple out and got screaming mad. I will let her cry 5 minutes and go back to comfort her and feed her water again. We did this iteration for a little over an hour until sleepy mommy finally won the battle and tired baby went to sleep. I prided myself to persevere at the wee hour of 2 o'clock when usually my brain doesn't function.
My plan is to train her with water for a week and move on to just comforting her for another week. Then hopefully she would be trained by November at 14 months old. That probably means I plan to have exhausting nights for the next two weeks but it would be good for the long term. I have been too focused on the short-term gain by quieting her with a bottle that I am suffering at the long run.
I hoped for same sleeping traits for Norah but alas, she is different. Despite a few random night she slept through which I always followed up with a celebration and memo of what might lead to it, she has been consistently woke up once a night till last week's sick episode.
She was up 3 to 4 times a night when she was sick. And I jumped up the first sound of her cry, fearing her temperature would rise again. Every time she would want some milk to calm her down and settle back to sleep. She recovered from her ear infection and some viral infection a couple of days ago, and I discovered in dismay that she got used to the comforts I provided in the middle of the night and still woke up 3 to 4 times a night!
I started to research in sleep training and decided to put a stop to this exhausting nonsense. Last night was my first sleeping training day of Norah. I am going by baby steps. First I am planning to substitute milk with water, so she doesn't count on a night diet and she could have good teeth cleaning habit. She wouldn't have it last night. Every time I fed her water, she would drink a few minutes and spit the nipple out and got screaming mad. I will let her cry 5 minutes and go back to comfort her and feed her water again. We did this iteration for a little over an hour until sleepy mommy finally won the battle and tired baby went to sleep. I prided myself to persevere at the wee hour of 2 o'clock when usually my brain doesn't function.
My plan is to train her with water for a week and move on to just comforting her for another week. Then hopefully she would be trained by November at 14 months old. That probably means I plan to have exhausting nights for the next two weeks but it would be good for the long term. I have been too focused on the short-term gain by quieting her with a bottle that I am suffering at the long run.
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