Sleep Training-Eeek!

The past few weeks have not been good when it comes to Sarah and sleeping overnight. Just for the sake of sleep she had been spending time in our arms and in her swing when the crib didn't work out. This was wearing on us, so we decided to get to training Sarah to self-soothe and fall asleep on her own.

Night 1 - Abigail fell asleep quickly, which made for a nice quiet environment for Sarah. Sarah seemed nice and dozy, with a full stomach, and ready for bed. I placed her in the crib, kissed her forehead, and left the room. Up until this night we had put her down asleep (kind of a no no). Anyway, we heard her on the monitor. She didn't fuss, she just wiggled around and fell asleep. I was amazed at how smoothly things went! Even better, she slept for 7 straight hours when lately she had been waking 1-2 hours after going down.

To top things off, I think the great night of sleep led to a great day of naps! She probably slept a good hour more than she has been lately.

Night 2 - Tonight went very different than last night. Abigail did not fall asleep quickly. I was struggling with what to do. Should I wait until Abigail is sleeping before putting Sarah down, or just put her down when it was "time"? Well, we decided to put Sarah down because it was time - we would just explain to Abigail that she needed to be quiet because Sarah was going "night night".

Sarah didn't go to sleep as quietly and quickly as last night. She started fussing and full out crying soon after I left the room. We decided to let her go on for four minute intervals before checking in and reassuring her. I went twice and was ready to throw in the towel in another four minutes, but she fell asleep! Sarah fell asleep when Abigail was up and about in bed and not exactly being quiet. She even stayed asleep when Abigail got out of bed on many occasions to fuss and cry in the doorway.

We'll see what Night 3 brings tomorrow. So far though, so good.

Here's a cute picture of our sleeper in training :-)