Erik and I recently changed pediatricians. We are now going to my doctor I saw as a child. We love him! He really listened to us, he fell in love with Eliana, and he gave good advice! Pretty much we made a good decision to change doctors. One of the things he gave us advice on was Ellie's nighttime routine. If you remember I wrote recently about trying to put Ellie down before she falls asleep, and I mentioned how horrible it is to hear her fuss. Well apparently, we still weren't doing this whole bedtime thing right. He said that we needed to feed her, change her diaper, and read her a story...all without letting her fall asleep. Then you put her down (unswaddled, I might add!)and come in and comfort her after 5 min, 10 min, and then every 15 min for about an hour and a half. He said it would take about 5 days for her to get used to this routine, but in no more than a week...she would be putting herself to sleep. At first this sounded easy enough. Erik and I decided that tonight was the night...
We fed Ellie her last feeding, changed her diaper, read her a story, and sang her a song, and just as the doctor ordered we put her down unswaddled and wide awake. At first Ellie was fine. She was talking to herself and making gurgling noises. All of a sudden as if she realized what we were doing she started to yell. Like the chicken I am, I ran out of the room crying while I left my hubby to fend for himself. I know you all are probably shaking your head at me as you read this, but it was just too much. I am used to picking her up as soon as she gets upset and holding her till she falls into a coma like sleep. I know that I have to grow out of this, but it's just soo hard. At any rate, we listened for 5 min while Ellie yelled and threw a fit. Then I went in first and cuddled her and kissed her and when she calmed down I put her back down. This time we waited 10 min, while Ellie yelled and pretty much screamed bloody murder. I sat in the living room crying and praying that I could make it through these few min. This time it was Erik's turn to comfort Ellie (also I didn't think I would be able to put her down if I went in there). Erik picked her up comforted her and put her down, and this time she fell right to sleep. Thank you God! Seriously, I didn't know if could do the next 15 minute interval.
This was not a fun experience, and right now I don't really like Ellie's doctor :) However tomorrow night is night numero dos...hopefully it will only get easier with time. Pray for me!
Hang in there sis:) you can do it! I have faith in you;)
ReplyDeleteHi, Sweetie, your doctor is right. George and I tried this routine and it more or less worked. MR cried if she was tired and went to sleep immediately when we put her down. John just screamed, I think for his own enjoyment, for hours. After about a week, we were used to the screaming and eventually the stubborn little thing got the message we were the parents and he was the child. (As you know, this was a message we had to deliver many times to John.) Mary was very typical: comfort every 10 to 15 minutes and after 4 to 5 days, she was content to fuss a little then go to sleep on her own. Hint: Comfort means pat on the back, soothing words, song, but never, ever pick up and hold. Every baby's different, every parent's different. They all finally sleep through on their own though, stick with it.
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