Sleep Training, nights 1 and 2

In general, sleep training sucks. It just does.

As I briefly mentioned in my last post, we are working on bedtimes only for the first few days, making "falling asleep" part of her bedtime routine. Any night wakings and nap times we still soothe her to sleep.

Last night was night 1. Annabelle had only a 30 minute afternoon nap, so she was very tired at bedtime. She was in our bed, lights out, at 6:00. She played and crawled on us for about 30 minutes, clearly exhausted but fighting sleep. Then the fussing started. She fussed and cried intermittently for 25 minutes before I left the room. If she started really crying, we picked her up or sang to her until she calmed down, then put her back in bed. I was getting emotional at how frustrating he whole process is, so I took a breather. Annabelle fell asleep in five minutes once I left the room. So, it took about an hour. The rest of the night was typical, up every 1-2 hours or so, nursing back to sleep.

Tonight is night 2. Very different from last night, not in a good way. Annabelle's nap this afternoon was an hour and a half, so she wasn't all that tired like last night. We were in bed at 6:30. She played and fought her sleepy eyes for an hour and a half before getting fussy or upset. But, once she was upset, it was bad. I couldn't calm her down easily, so *I* started crying, picked her up, and carried her out of the bedroom. We both needed a break. After a few minutes, I nursed her to a drowsy state again, then laid her down next to me. She started crying again, but more of a protesting cry than a really upset cry, and she fell asleep in about five minutes, next to me. I just kept praying peace and sleep over her in the name of Jesus. I actually felt a very supernatural peace come over ME, which I sooo needed. Annabelle has woken up once so far tonight, but Jason just laid her back down and she went right back to sleep. Progress? Maybe. I am not counting my chickens yet! I am just hoping these bedtimes get better, soon.