Today I did the hardest thing I have ever done..... I let Charlie cry. It was horrible! Up until a few days ago she has been an angel baby. She sleeps in between feedings and smiles all the time. Then all of a sudden she started getting really cranky. She was fussy all day and when she would fall asleep to take a nap she would wake up in 30-45 minutes and fuss and scream! I didn't know what was wrong.
One of our friends sent us this book called "Baby Wise". It is a sleeping reference and it teaches you how to get your baby into a schedule and have them sleeping through the night by age 7-9 weeks.
While I was reading it I came across something called the "45 minute intruder". It is when your baby wakes up after only 45 minutes of a nap and starts to cry. Most parents go and get the child and let them stay up because they thing that the child is ready to be awake. This is not true... an infant does not know when they need to sleep or not.
So anyway, I don't want to write the whole book down... the drill is "eat" "wake time" "nap time" and repeat this every 3-4 hours. Last night Charlie slept through the night for the first time! All by herself! So I figure today is as good a day as any to start to teach her how to "self soothe".
I started the day by feeding her at 9:00am. Then we played on her new toy mat that she LOVES! The toys hang over her and she smiles and coos.....SO CUTE! After we played for an hour and a half, I did the dreaded thing..... I put her down for a nap and left her in her bassinett. She cried for 15 minutes and then I went in and patted her back and she calmed. (that is what I was supposed to do...) Then I left again, by left I mean I went into the next room while she was in my room. She cried for another 15 minutes.... cried hard. I then was supposed to go in the room and comfort her... I held her for about 3 minutes and she fell to sleep right away. She was crying in her sleep a little while I held her... I was crying too. It was so hard to hear her cry and not go to her.
So the next nap was at 5pm. I put her down and left the room... she cried for 5 minutes and silence! I thought I was crazy. Then she slept for 15 minutes and cried for 1 minute. She did that two more times and then she slept hard for 1 1/2 hours.
Now I just put her down for her last nap before I feed her and put her to bed for the night and she cried for 6 minutes and now she has been sleeping for 35 minutes without a peep!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy that this seems to be working!
Up until this point she has been too small to let her cry so I hold her until she sleeps and then transfer her to her bassinett. But all of sudden now she is old enough and she wakes up as soon as I put her down and then just gets so fussy. By the way..... in between her naps today she was nothing but smiles!!!! I am so pleased..... It sure was a hard day though..... for Mommy and Baby.
I sure love being a Mom. It is the best thing that has ever happened to me. Charlize brings such joy to Scotty and me. And being her Mommy makes me want to be the best person that I can be.... just for her. Life is great. God sure has blessed us.