Finding Balance: Wellness for the Everyday Struggle: Baby Sleep

I'm so afraid to post this. Because I don't want to jinx this. So I'll try not to brag and be brief.

Cozy sleeping girl

But I think Jade is actually a good sleeper, in her own way, which is likely as good as it ever gets for an infant.

For the first two weeks of her life, she was a total sleepaholic, but of course they generally all are. Then for the next couple of months she actually slept decently when I got her down, assuming it was in a reasonable time frame. If she got overtired, it was all over, super short naps.

But getting her down was ridiculous. Sometimes an hour of effort. And rocking didn't work, and snuggling wasn't enough. Pacing, lots of pacing. She likes movement.

As she got older, things got a little better. Usually less time to get her down, and as she could stay awake longer without being overtired.

Then, she found her thumb. This was a step that Legan didn't really make until he was over a year, he didn't learn how to settle himself down. But this girl, she LOVES her thumb.

At first, we would pace until she passed out. Then we would pace, I would stick her thumb in her mouth, and she'd pass out.

Then I would pace and she would find her thumb herself and pass out quickly. Then I thought we took steps backward.

Two things happened, 1 - she would suck her thumb and settle down quickly, but then shake it all off and look around and refuse to lay her head back down, and 2 - she started to wake up repetitively overnight again, a ton. More than she ever had.

And I thought it was all over. I thought that all hope of sleeping for the next year and a half was gone. But no. I had to learn something. My kids are not the same as everyone else's kids and they're not the same as each other. Legan couldn't learn to settle himself down until he was older, so trying to help him fall asleep and stay asleep by himself just didn't work. I thought maybe that meant that there was something wrong with all the methods and ideas and everything behind "sleep training" but now I'm thinking it was just mostly that it just wasn't for us/him. Because I have finally figured out how to help out Jade. I make sure that she's well fed and her diaper is clean. I make sure she's been awake for long enough and that she's rubbed her eyes (or her whole face on me) a few times and whined, so I know she's tired. I pace with her for just a couple of minutes. I make sure she finds her thumb and I snuggle her for those couple minutes. Like 5 or less. And I set her down and walk away. And she grabs her thumb within 10 seconds of me setting her down and is generally out in 5 min or less with almost no noise.

And if she's not, I pick her up, offer boob, she generally refuses, and I repeat the short pacing. And set her back down. I think only once has it not worked that second time. That singular experience, it worked the third time. So I guess it was generally too early to get her asleep that day.

So...it's generally easy.

She takes decent naps and sleeps decently at night, so long as we don't wait until she's been up for way way way way too long before settling her down. Of course, decent changes week to week. She's now usually up only 1-2 times at night. Sometimes that means up at 3 and 5, but sometimes that means midnight and 3, and then starting the day at 5 am. Which results in not much sleep for me.

It's weird.

Good but weird.

So if things change in a couple of weeks and she gets difficult again, I'll try to remember to follow HER two rules. She wants me to set her down so that she can fall asleep, and make sure that she hasn't been awake for too little or too much time.

Sweet Jade - don't worry, this mommy is going to have to learn a lot from you still.

The only real hurdle is when she's sick. Because then she can't necessarily lay down and sleep, because the snot or coughing stops her from sleeping. And she doesn't want to sleep on you. So....you walk and walk and walk and sit with her on the couch and hope she falls asleep.