brette is napping
out of the swing and into her crib.
finally.
don't get me wrong,
i owe that swing BIG time.
it finally got brette to nap off of me and
for a couple hours at a time.
we love that swing.
but brette is getting bigger and
it made me nervous to have her in there
because one: she's not strapped in.
and two: she's started sleeping on her side.
isn't that cute?
but not exactly optimal [or safe] for the swing.
(monitor shot - b in her crib on her side)
another reason we made the transition from swing to crib
is my back.
well, its never really gone away.
i think my back will be forever jacked after having a kid.
its never been that big of deal until i started
bouncing and swaying brette to sleep.
at first i would only do it for a minute or two,
then lay her in her swing and she was out.
but two minutes turned to twenty minutes.
everyday, twice a day i was basically doing squats with
a 20lb weight and moving side to side [to mimic the swing]
and i was in pain.
i was telling marge and shannon about it
they both thought i was crazy.
why in the world was i doing all that?
and when i thought about it...
they were right.
if this is how i'm parenting her to fall asleep
then i'm either going to have to change it
or be prepared to rock her to sleep for years.
i knew there was no way my back could take that.
i thought maybe i could rock her in a rocking chair,
but brette would lose it if i sat down.
picky. picky.
and funny enough, marge and shan use the same
method when getting their kids to take naps:
you lay them in bed and don't bother them for an hour.
my initial thought:
have you met brette? this is never going to work.
she will scream her head off.
my second thought:
i don't believe in letting my kid cry it out.
what about her trusting me?
what about her learning that i will respond to her needs?
so i did the ol' go check on her in 5 minutes,
then 7 minutes,
then 13 minutes,
then 30 minutes.
and this didn't work for brette and i.
she lost her mind when i came in the room.
for real. she totally got worse.
so i thought, well maybe me going in there IS making it worse.
so i went back to marge and shannon's suggestion.
they insisted that this would work
but it was going to take around 5 days
for brette to get used to it.
i started it last monday.
the first couple days were a 50/50 shot on whether or not
b would fall asleep or cry for an hour.
and i hated it.
especially those times when she never did fall asleep.
she was tired, her hair was wet from tears, her face was red and she couldn't catch her breath.
it's a sorry, pathetic sight
and you feel like a selfish mom.
on day three and four she actually didn't nap at all.
she just cried the whole time.
that was horrible and
i was officially hating this method.
but just like marge and shan said,
day five she was better.
she slept one nap and cried the other.
and from then on out she falls asleep both nap times
and is asleep within 10-15 minutes.
and now, its not crying, just her yelling.
a few times she hasn't cried at all,
just played around in her crib until she fell asleep.
that was awesome.
i'm still in a bit of shock that all i do now is lay my
kiddo in a crib and leave,
but seriously, its the best thing ever.
two disclosures:
one - we don't do this at bedtime because A) she was already sleeping in her crib at night. B) we give brette a bottle in a rocking chair and she falls asleep before the bottle is gone, so i was never bouncing her to sleep.
two - i, personally, would not use this method on a baby younger than 9 months old. i think in those early months you are building trust and you have to be flexible to what the baby needs. i think crying it out is not good for a baby that young. just my opinion. hell, i had a hard enough time doing it with brette at this age.
