Sleep Training

At Kyleigh's 3 month checkup, Dr. Breen mentioned that her development and personality seemed more on par with a 4 month old.  Because of this, she suggested that we can begin sleep training now (developmentally, she could handle it), or we could wait until she was 4 months old, which is the normal time Dr. Breen would suggest sleep training.  The decision was up to us, but the longer we wait, it could potentially get more difficult.

I kind of have mixed feelings about this because Kyleigh has been SUCH a great night time sleeper since she was 6 weeks old.  Seriously, what mom is lucky enough to get a full nights rest (literally, 8-10 hours straight) at 6 weeks old?  I didn't really understand the sleep training part until I thought about HOW we get her to sleep.  Since birth, she was always very tightly swaddled and held in someone's arms until she was asleep.  There were times when Ryan or I would need to hold her for up to 45 minutes AFTER she fell asleep before we could lay her down because she would just wake up again screaming.  The process to get her to sleep was long, exhausting, and sometimes frustrating.

Upon reflection of this process, I realized it would be a good idea to start sooner rather than later.  So it began on Sunday, September 9, 2012.  This was her first official night of sleep training.

We are now 10 days into this and it has been a huge roller coaster.  Some days, I can lay her down for a nap and there is a moment of fussing (not even crying) and she'll fall right to sleep.  Other days, she will scream and kick until my ears hurt.  It breaks my heart to have her cry as much as she does, but I also know it's best.  We sleep trained Reagan and he's a fantastic sleeper.  He rarely cries or protests when going down for a nap or bedtime and he generally wakes up happy.

Shortly after we started (I think it was Tuesday, 9/11), Kyleigh found her thumb!  This was huge, as the sucking on her thumb would calm her down significantly.  It's just become a matter of FINDING her thumb each time :)

I'm hoping the days get better because right now, they are terrible.  It takes such an emotional toll on me.  I know we can get through this, I know we can.