Why you ask is Avery not blogging today? Well that's because she is napping right now in her crib. Yes napping something which just 2 short weeks ago she was not doing on her own. So I have decided to document my journey or should I say my struggles as a first time mommy and working out our 'sleep problems'. So I apologize now for those of you that will be bored with this..Just stop reading now and come back in a few days and I will have some new pictures.
Most of what I read today online, in blogs, and in magazines from parents are all the questions and concerns they have with their children sleeping. I don't think that I truly knew what everyone meant when they would tell me 2-3 times a day back in early August that I needed to "get some sleep now because I may never sleep again". So correct they were. In the last 6 1/2 months mommy has yet to sleep the entire night without waking up and that is not because we have a horrible sleeper on our hands. I like to call it 'a mothers duty'. A mothers duty to be a light sleeper for the rest of her life waiting for that whimper on the monitor or that twist in her sleep that wakes her up or later on in life waiting for her to come home late at night. In fact, Avery has been a great sleeper at night. At about 4 1/2 months she dropped her nighttime feeding and began sleeping 10 hours at night. What a blessing but as a mother I think you always want more. More sleep, more naps....and the list goes on...... So that leads me to where we are today..
It would be silly to think that this sleep journey was just mommy being a fabulous mom and knowing all the right things to do. No actually I have spent hours and hours reading books, asking for advice and emailing good friends who have kids. What I do know and have known all along is that I have a very FLEXIBLE, HAPPY and CONTENT baby and for that I am blessed.
Avery spent the first 5-6 months of her life moving.... Moving from Arkansas, moving to Buffalo Grove and finally moving to Arlington Heights. It was a lot for one little girl to handle but as I expected she did much better than mommy or daddy with all the changes. Avery was napping in her mommy and daddy's bed for naps (yes hard to admit) for those first 5-6 months. We would lay down with her and the comfort of having mommy and daddy next to her would 'knock' her out very quickly. It was a great bonding time. She was napping and we were happy. But once we moved into our own house that just was a little too 'dysfunctional' for me so I decided to try putting her down in her crib for naps. First of all I had to figure out when I was going to put her down. In the past it was just whenever she looked tired. So after some talking to friends I decided that 9am and 1pm would be the best time to try this. Avery and I went straight to the bookstore and bought a book that was highly recommended and off we went. Mommy now had some tools to use. We used the book titled Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby. The title was great. What mother doesn't want her child to have healthy sleep habits and be happy?
Overall, the book made me understand the sleep process a little better. The more sleep your child is getting the easier it is for naps. I was one of those moms that thought I would just wear her out and stretch her to her limit and she would be zonked out and sleep for hours. WRONG! The most important and first thing we did with Avery was push up her bed time because in the book it said she would begin to sleep longer in the morning. I always wanted to put her to bed later so she would sleep later. Avery was going to bed between 7:30-8:00 every night and one night we decided to try her at 7:00pm instead and sure enough she was out like a light and now was sleeping 11 hours at night and getting up between 6-6:30am. The next was to tackle the naps remembering that the more rested she was the easier it would be to get her to nap.
The first couple of days were rough. She did not want to nap in her bed and she would tell mommy this by crying and screaming and of course I wanted to run in and 'save her'. It was pure torture for me and I decided that letting her cry it out for 30 minutes was my limit!! For the first couple times she would get so upset that she would actually have diarrhea. I had to question myself a million times at this point but I pushed on. And it kept getting easier but not without some tears for mommy too. The morning nap came first with tears but it came and sadly lasted only for 30 minutes and she was up crying again. What a disappointment. The afternoon nap often was spent screaming for the full 30 minutes and then we would go in and get her. Failed for the day.
The crying at the beginning got less and less as the days went on....
And I am happy to say that week 2 we have had 2 full naps each at least 1 hour and 15 minutes in length and the beauty of this is that the crying has stopped when I leave the room. It works!!!I am not naive to think we have fixed things for good but I do know that we have a great start!!!! We have a happy baby that is getting her naps in and a happy mommy and daddy. We have a routine and Avery knows what to expect. It is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do yet in her short life. I am sure there will be a million harder things that come up(Geoff and I were just saying last night what are we going to do when she leaves us to go to college:(?) but we know that is the beauty of being parents. For us we are very happy with our routine and Avery is a happy baby and now with a little more sleep in her crib!! We feel blessed to have such a great baby because I so believe she has had to work the hardest!! Thank you Avery Grace for bringing naps to the Sherman household:)! We love you!!!!!
