Kendall and Sleep

So let me just start this post by saying that Kendall's sleeping habits (particularly putting her to sleep) have been A-Maz-ing recently. I feel like all of my effort to put her down in her crib "awake but drowsy" has really worked well for her. 

Since we established a relatively regular schedule, as long as I put her down for a nap within her regular times, she doesn't even have to be super drowsy for me to put her down. At the first sign of fussiness, or even a yawn (after about an hour to hour and fifteen minutes of awake time) I just take her right up to her room, swaddle her and lay her down. Within about 10-15 minutes she is peacefully asleep on her own! Every time she falls asleep on her own without fussiness or crying, I am totally in shock, even though it keeps happening. 

With Avery, like most parents, we rocked her to sleep, or nursed her to sleep, or let her fall asleep in our arms, or when I was desperate I walked her to sleep for 15-20 minutes and sometimes that didn't even work. This went on for about the first 16-17 weeks of her life. She also wasn't on any type of schedule or routine because I didn't read Babywise before I had Avery, and I read The Baby Whisperer around the time Avery was 10-11 weeks, but at that point lots of habits had already been established and it seemed hard to change. With Avery, her naps were very irregular and honestly, dictated by her. Because of this, I never knew if she would take a 15-minute catnap, or a 2 hour long nap. It was difficult to get things done because I would be afraid to put her down sometimes when she did fall asleep (for fear of waking her). Even if I did put her down, I would be nervous to take a shower, or take the quickest shower ever because she might wake at any time. I think this is a frustration for many new parents, or anyone with a new baby. We were lucky that she did extend her nighttime sleep on her own to be sleeping 8-9 hours at 10 weeks, but she went through the dreaded 4-month sleep regression, and it was pretty bad - she started waking about every two hours and it was very difficult to get her back to sleep without a lot of effort (both physically and mentally) from me. Many people think that the regression is due to the fact that the baby falls asleep in mom or dad's arms, and then wakes alone in the crib, and doesn't know where she is (which I think is true too.) Eventually around 17 weeks we did "cry it out" with her, in order to teach her how to go to sleep on her own, which she had never been made to do, and that way she would know where she was when she woke in the middle of the night. We only had a few really bad nights, and it did work for us and she began sleeping 12 hours a night for us again, and is still a really good night-time sleeper, but it was tough hearing her cry.

With Kendall, I wanted to do things differently, and I think it's what has made the last 11 weeks so much more manageable, especially with a toddler. Of we've had our ups and downs, and getting to a schedule has still been tough (I mean, it's still a baby haha) but it's been so much better knowing that I am working toward a routine and schedule, and feeling like I am directing the schedule, instead of letting Kendall determine the day. I also have confidence that Kendall will continue going to sleep on her own, and she will not have the drastic regression that Avery had. I am really hoping that we won't have to do a "cry it out," or if we do that it will be pretty minimal. 

Of course, as I've been writing this post, I've had to take some breaks and put Kendall down for two naps so far today. The first nap went great; I put her down awake and she drifted off to sleep peacefully. For her second nap I did have to pick her up and pat her for a few minutes to calm her down because she started crying after my first attempt to put her down, but she calmed quickly and I was still able to lay her down in a "drowsy but awake" state, and she went to sleep. Of course I can't always expect perfection, but she's doing great for 11 weeks old, and I'm very proud of the progress she's made!