Monday, August 22, 2011

She sleeps!


11:44am

I *might* have found something that works with Monkey's naps. A few things sort of clicked and I really hope it's not just a fluke. It's really three things, room being dark, making sure she is warm enough and rubbing her hand to lull her to sleep.

Over the weekend my cousin Cindy mentioned that with her oldest he wouldn't nap unless he had a blanket on, even if he didn't feel cold. For the last week or so I have been putting a blanket on Monkey's crib sheet since it is cool in there most of the time and I keep the door closed to try and keep it cat hair free as much as possible. The front of our house is always cooler then the back where the great room and wall of windows are. We even closed one of the vents in there to try and warm it up a bit. Anyways I decided today on top of that bottom blanket to wrap her in another one. I also tried rubbing her hand to lull her to sleep. Chris told me a few weeks ago that that worked for him before he went to work once. I have been bringing her into our bed when she is up for the day and feeding her lying down soI can wake up slowly and maybe get a few extra minutes of sleep while she is eating. He rubbed her hand after she was done and she had went back to sleep. Even though she looked wide awake it worked! The best part was that she was already lying in her crib so I didn't wake her up when setting her down.

I really need to get her used to sleeping at certain times and to go to sleep easily since before long we will have to lower the mattress in her crib and I much don't want to be breaking my back trying to set her in there while asleep. She wakes up easily when it's at it's highest setting, I couldn't imagine what it would be like lower. I've had a bit of hope for awhile now that it would get easier since the last week or so at 4am feeding I am so tired that there is no way I am going to sit there and rock her to sleep when all I want to do is sleep myself. So I feed her, hug her, put her in her crib, give her a kiss, tuck the blanket around her, say good night and go back to my own room and you know what I never hear a peep out of her until the morning. That led me to believe that her room was not dark enough. So I have been on a mission to make it as dark as possible. I'm not totally there, there are a few things left i can do but it's 75% better then it was! So that is a start.
Tommarrow I am going to find my book light so that I can read in there while trying to get her to stay asleep. The no cry nap/sleep solution said that if your baby wakes up completely between sleep cycles you might have to sit outside her door for a week or so and run in there as soon as you hear them cry to help them back to sleep. Sometimes the don't cry right away so by the time you get in there it's already to late. If that is the case, and that is how monkey is, she suggested sitting in a chair right by the crib but out of sight. That way as soon as you hear them stir you can help them back to sleep and eventually after a week or so you won't need to help them. I look forward to that day, but today has given me hope! I have been in there a few times so far. I think a good time for her naps are 10am and 2pm although since her sleep schedule last night was messed up I held off her nap for a little longer and hope she will sleep until pm1 this time. I hope this really does get easier. It would be nice to get things done around the house!
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