I have yet to figure out how to get Kaelyn to sleep by herself. As in, how to get her to go to sleep when she's alone. When she was first born she would fall asleep whenever and we would just hold her. She was so little, who wanted to put her down! Then I realized I would be much more comfortable sleeping if I put her down somewhere. And I was DESPERATE for sleep, being up much of the night and all. But I fast discovered that Kaelyn would not STAY asleep if I put her down, the little rascal! After many attempts in many different ways, I resigned myself to just holding her. If she slept, she was in a better mood. I found various ways to get comfortable myself. She would fall asleep, I would ease into the rocking chair and lean back. I had several pillows nearby in strategic locations that I could reach to prop my arms and/or head on so I could get some sleep as well. It worked for us.
After many months of this I came to the realization that I could NOT hold her for every nap anymore. I had NO opportunity to do anything on my own. I was just getting tired of sitting around all the time while she slept. It took some time but I perfected bouncing her to sleep and dumping her in her bed. I would then often have to pat her for long periods of time. From there we moved to rocking to sleep, then dumping her in bed.
And that's where we remain. This is for nap times. She also naps in the car pretty well or in the stroller when we go to the zoo. But when we're at home, it takes plenty of rocking, a carefully crafted dump into the bed, and a soft footed sneak out the door.
At bedtime Kaelyn still nurses herself to sleep but this, too, will soon enough come to an end.
However, I am now tiring of the constant rocking. I certainly don't mind holding Kaelyn and watching her drift to sleep. Sometimes it's only a matter of 5-10 minutes. Other times it's a matter of 40 minutes and when I dump her in bed she wakes right back up and we have to start all over again. I'm just getting plain frustrated with it. And I'm starting to wonder, if I keep rocking her to sleep, how will she EVER learn to go to sleep on her own? And why should she? What kid wouldn't be happier with a cozy rocking session?!
Ah yes, she has me well trained.
In anticipation of stopping the night time nursing session maybe in a few months I'm thinking I might want to try something different at naptime and see how it goes. What? I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps take her to her room, read her a few books, rock for just a couple of minutes to relax, put her in her bed and go.
Now, I've tried just putting her in her crib. She thinks that's fun. She gets all wide-eyed and coos and rolls right over and sits up. If I leave her there, she cries. When I THINK she's asleep after a rocking session and ease her into bed and she wakes up, she immediately starts poking the side of the crib and having a great time like she's slept for an hour instead of two seconds. I really think she needs to learn how to go to sleep on her own. And she needs to know that she's okay alone and that I'll ALWAYS come back. She has some severe separation anxiety issues.
So be thinking of me in the next week or so as I experiment. A friend of mine said I probably just need to let Kaelyn know who's boss. Don't let her train/control me. When it's nap time it's naptime and that's that. That makes perfect sense. But that is also SO much easier said then done. When she cries my heart breaks and I just want to FIX it. So we'll see how far I get with the idea. But at this point, I really feel like I need to try something different. There aren't always rockers available when we're away from home...like the in-laws house...when we go camping...if we ever stay at a hotel. I'd be up a creek without my rocker at this point and really need to find myself a paddle so we have other options. Guess we'll see how it works out!
Not sure what I could have done differently to prevent it. I think if I had just laid Kaelyn down when she was little...but then I think about how tired I was and the only way I could keep her asleep was to hold her and just sit. That was the only way I myself was getting sleep as well. It's easy to think about what I SHOULD have done when I'm more well rested now. But actually having DONE it on NO sleep...not so simple!
I guess we'll just see how it goes. I hope it's not a totally miserable experience. I keep reminding myself she won't remember this stage when she's older....but I always will!!!
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