Sleep Training, What Fun !

After a little over a month of sleep training, Audrey is still waking up ALL the time! GRRR! Momma is TIRED! But God is providing grace for each day and we are making it.




It all began around the beginning of March. Momma was EXHAUSTED from waking up every other hour with Audrey and being woken up several times in the night by Phil’s night wakings or Kristen’s nightmares. The doctor told us Audrey should be sleeping for at least 6 to 8 hours without nursing. This inspired the first step of sleep training. For about a week, Phil and I tried to stretch Audrey’s nursings apart. If she woke, one of us would try to rock, pat and/ or shh her to sleep. Our goal at this point was to stretch her to 4 hours, 6 to 8 hours was a long ways off. I would nurse Audrey at 8 pm, lay her down awake, and leave her till midnight. At midnight, I could nurse again and lay Audrey back down. Then she was supposed to sleep till 4 am. At 4 am, I could nurse Audrey for the second time and then lay her back down.


After about a week of rocking, holding, patting and shhing, Audrey stretched out her nursing!!!! But she was still waking up a lot. We still had two things to work on : the wakings, and stretching the nursing out even more. The next week, we continued the same plan, but tried to keep Audrey in her crib for the non-feeding times. I went into her room from 8 to 2 if she awoke and Phil took the second shift. Phil got the bum deal. She woke up and stayed up every night during his shift. He spent hours leaning over her crib, singing, quoting verses, praying and shhing her, all as he rubbed and patted her back. We saw no progress with this plan.




Exhausted and frustrated, we decided to let her cry it out by herself, in between the two feedings. The first night of this plan, I was sent to my mother’s house to sleep. Phil had two bottles for the midnight and 4 am feedings. Day One, Two and Three, Audrey only took an ounce at midnight and an ounce at 4 am. This convinced us that the doctor was right, Audrey was waking up for comfort, not for nutrition. So, we dropped the midnight feeding. On Day 4 and 5, she slept!!! a lot!!!..barely fussed around 3 or 3 :30, nursed at 4 and then went back to sleep. Yeah! Phil and I started dreaming about what life would be like now that we would be rested and have energy. Unfortunately, Day 6 and 7 didn’t go the same way. Three weeks into sleep training and several days into Cry it Out and Audrey was still waking up every other hour. And Phil and Kristen were taking turns waking up with bad dreams as well. We decided around Day 8 or 9, that maybe dropping the midnight feeding was correct, but maybe we should be feeding Audrey at 2 am, not at 4 am. So we tried that for a while. Audrey woke up several times each night, crying for a long time. Almost three weeks of cry it out and a total of five weeks of sleep training, I was frustrated, exhausted and seeing no progress. The crying was getting to me, waking Kristen up and keeping Audrey from sleeping. All three of us were cranky during the day and exhausted at night. We were done.


So what now? Well, we are just winging it. Right now, we think Audrey is teething, so we are medicating her at night. I am getting up two to four times a night with her. I am holding her and trying to help her get back to sleep without nursing, but some nights I nurse before 2 am.




Kristen's nightmares are less frequent now, so at least that is something.