So Amelie turned 6 months old today. And yesterday? I realized I hadn't really been doing the greatest job of sleep training her for her naps. Sure, at night we have our routine....bath, pjs, bottle, and bed. She puts herself off to sleep without fail every night. But naps? Another story.
See, during the day, I have my nanny do the majority of naps, and she is a user of crutches...the bouncy ball instead of rocking chair, and she also will use a pacifier if Amelie is particularly difficult to put off to sleep. Nap time usually involves tears and feeling of forcing her to sleep. With crutches. And when she finally goes to sleep? It's usually for 30-45 minutes. Yeah, not good. Then the process might even repeat itself if my nanny deems her still tired....she'll bounce her back to sleep for however long it takes. Until this weekend.
With our annual trip to Turkey just a month away, I realized I need to get serious about getting this girl trained. I can't be taking bouncy ball on the trip with me! And the last thing I want is to fight the time zone change in addition to an already difficult nap situation.
So this weekend I dusted off my Ferber book and reviewed. I know that he is highly criticized for being the cry it out guy, but if you really familiarize yourself with his theory, you'll find he is much gentler than Dr. Spock of the 70's that all our parents used. Anyway, yesterday we bit the bullet.
And today? Amelie is 2 for 2 on getting herself off to sleep at naptime. There are complaints. There is squawking. But she's already caught on to the routine after 3 naps yesterday following the same pattern. Sleep sack, put it bed, white noise machine on, and "It's sleepy time, Amelie". That's all. No bouncing. No pacifier. No crutches. Oh, and did I mention that this morning's nap was an hour and a half long with no need for intervention?
Let's see how tomorrow goes!
No comments:
Post a Comment