I am a BIG whiner when it comes to getting sleep. If I don't have enough sleep I am mean. So with Ruby not sleeping that well, I was headed for a break down. I was grouchy for about a week straight. Not that it was even that bad, but it got to me. So after checking out various books...the first one I skimmed said to put them to bed earlier. I thought DUH...I bet that is it. I bet I am keeping Ruby up too late. That night was horrible. It took 2 hours for her to fall asleep and stay asleep for longer then 15 minutes. Plus the whole time she was crying so hard it really did sound like she was dying!! I was crying too and very frustrated. Then after she fell asleep she woke up 4 times that night, which is more then she usually does. Anyways, that didn't work. And what kept repeating through my head was
(Yes I made this but I believe however that it should say..."fo dat")
Then I read that she should only be up for 2 hours at a time. She was still cranky and screaming when we tried to put her down later. BUT behold....I got some more books and skimmed those. This time we did a lot of things differently
1. I nursed her right when she woke up, instead of trying to nurse her to sleep (that worked when she was younger)
2. We got a bigger pacifier. One she had tried before and didn't like but this time she took it
3. We had a more precise routine...rocking for a couple mins, lay her down, read her smiles book, listen to relaxation music on Pandora and pat her bum while she sucks on the pacifier
4. We put her on her side instead of her back
And bam...took less then 15 mins the first time we did this for her to fall asleep. There was no boob and WAY less crying. Just a little fussy. She slept for an hour and a half. Next nap...an hour and a half later...same routine, same result. This time she slept for 2 hours. Yes I was doing a victory dance.
And this allowed us to put her to sleep for bedtime earlier, like I had read before. Ruby has been asleep for an hour and a half so far. It hasn't been perfect. I have had to go in a couple times to help her back to sleep. But we are working on one problem at a time. More things we have to conquer....sleeping in her own bed and sleeping longer stretches at night. In the words of my father "Ah das better!"
