Sleep Training a 11.5 Month Old

merlotmama (61)in #life • 4 years ago

Good Hello Everyone,

After a lot of research, blog posts and YouTube videos... Me and my partner have decided to attempt to sleep train our 11.5 month old. She will be 1 year old on February 24th... Where did this ENTIRE year go? Heidi had a fairly good system going on with sleep until we left for our trip to Arizona. I had a good set routine with her right before bed, consisting of quiet play, bath, rocking, bottle, bed. She normally would sleep the first 3 sometimes 4 hours on her own in the crib, I would then bring her to my bed and she usually would sleep soundly until the morning. Then it started being 2 hours only in her crib. She then, right before our trip, got sick and that's when I decided I should attempt some sleep training when I get home from my trip. She slept the entire 10 days of our trip in our bed for nighttime and naps. When I got home I just tried going back to her normal routine, and putting her down, but she woke up within 1 hour sometimes less.. So I just brought her to my bed. Mama has got to sleep too.

DISCLAIMER

I used the old "Ferber" method. Which is letting your child cry periodically while checking in on them, assuring them you are still there, every so often. Do not come at me for saying this is a bad idea. This is what me and my family want to do, and it is proven to help. Carry on with your life if you don't approve.

Night #1

I sat down with little Heidi in the basement and started playing a quiet game with her. We played with building blocks for about 20 min. Then I started her bath. I gave her a bath and played with her some more there. Cleaned her up, put her in her sleeper and her sleep sack and went about my night.

I think she knew something was up... I normally have ZERO problem putting her down for the 1st time of the night, I rock her on the rocking chair while feeding her, she falls asleep and then I was going to start the training when she woke up again....
...except she wouldn't go down, I think she had a feeling or premonition if you will, about something going on. So I started the training then.

At 745pm, I put her in the crib and she cried. She jumped up and down holding onto the crib crying, for 5 minutes. I went and checked on her and layed her down, not saying anything, and left the room. She did the same thing again for 10 minutes, and I went back and layed her down again. Next timer was for 15 minutes and every 15 minutes I go and do the same thing. Lay her down and rub her back maybe for 1 minute.
Heidi only cried I'd say for less then half the time this whole first night process took. She was mostly whining, but not producing tears. The other half, she started hanging onto the crib and crouching, I will insert a picture here...

picture quality is not that great, but as you can see, her in the corner with her one arm still holding onto the crib, and crouched when she got super tired, she pretty much did this, silent, not crying, not whining and falling asleep.

She stayed like this for a good 30-40 minutes, broken up of course. Then I slowly started to notice no sound, at all, and just her kind of doing the head Bob thing we adults do in a car, or a chair when we're super tired., but she was doing it with her whole body. At one point I was worried about her falling and hitting her head on the side of the crib. She started to put one hand down and still hold onto crib with other, fighting sleep, and not laying down.
The second I was going to get up and lay her down, assure her she's okay and were still here, she let go, curled up into a ball and... You guess it...

WENT TO SLEEP!!!

Little miss Heidi then slept in her own crib, in her own room, without waking once, for 7 whole hours!!! Took 2 hours and 10 minutes for her to do it, but this was the first night after all. The second and third and even forth night I'm hoping will be a lot easier for her... And for me and papa. She woke up at 4am, and that is fairly early for any child her age. I panicked and wondered what I was supposed to do, being woken up and confused. Normally what I do do (haha doo doo) is pick her up, rock her on rocking chair and bottle for 30 min and bring her to my bed, or just to my bed. Period. Buuuuttt I thought rocking her would screw this whole thing up!! So instead I rocked her and fed her the bottle for 10 min and just did what I did earlier, putting her into bed and she eventually went to sleep again for another 2 hours, that only took one hour bringing us to about 7am.

Night #2

We are currently... 30 min. In and I am losing my freaking mind. I have to be playing on my phone because I feel bad for her. She crying is now turning into screams... But on the good side, 30 min. In and she's starting to crouch and calm down already.. False hope? ...keep reading to find out.
Soooooo, about 1 hour, and she's down! Does this actually work?? Me and David really don't like doing this, but we prefer her to learn now and not be in our bed. He predicted 1 hour and 40 min and I predicted 1 hour... I win! Hopefully the rest of the night goes smoothly...
Heidi awoke at about 150am, making it only 5 hours into her 2nd night. I gave her some milk and did what I do. It seemed to only take about 25-30 more minutes for her to fall back asleep again. She then awoke at 730am to begin the day :)

We as parents want what's best for our children, at any age they are. This was/is extremely hard for both me and my partner to see her in this state but also knowing she is capable of putting herself to sleep. When your born you have no fears, no doubts, no worries. That stays with you well into your young adult life sometimes, the only worry Heidi has at this point in her life is weather or not me and David will come back. It's hard to communicate that with her but going into her room every 20 min reassures her that we are not far away, we will always be here for you and we love you very much. Even when she is older, we will always assure her that our bedroom is across the hall, of you ever need anything we're not far away At all. Lately she has been crying when mostly I leave a room during the day, but even when David leaves as well. Poor kid, sometimes I wish I could just tell her that everything will be okay, but until I can fully communicate with her, assuring and reassuring her is all we can do.

I was going to continue with the next couple days, but I'm confident she will be fine and each night will be roughly the same. I AM NOT A SLEEP CONSULTANT WHATSOEVER with that being said, who knows if this will last, a hiccup may come and i may start from square one. yes its hard, mentally and physically, but we believe its good for everyone in the long run. Did you do sleep training with your little ones? I would LOVE to hear your stories on how you did it, the method and how it has changed your life and your little ones life. I would especially love to hear from some mamas from the @steemitmamas community, their stories and maybe some advice or encouragement, would be lovely! Until next time...

XOXO,
MM

#steemitmamas #sleep #family #lifestyle