Audrey.... the climber.
Well, the day has arrived... and a lot sooner than I thought it would! Two nights ago, Audrey figured out how to climb out of her crib! Here's the sequence of events...
During work, I chatted with a coworker who is currently "sleep training" her daughter, who is 2 months younger than Audrey and doing the exact same things Audrey has been doing. They go down in their crib then after a while cry for Mommy and stand up in their crib until someone comes to their aid. She was letting her baby come into the adult bed and sleep the rest of the night there. Jeff and I have been doing the same thing with Audrey. She said she was doing that because her baby was sick but now that she's better, it's time to train her to stay in her crib.
She told me when the baby initially cries, she goes in and comforts. When baby cries again, she waits 5 minutes then goes in to comfort. This continues with the intervals increasing - next 10, then 20. She told me when it was the 20 minute interval, she was laying in her bed listening to her baby screaming and feeling like a terrible mom. But when she still had 11 minutes left of waiting, the house grew silent. Her baby had tired herself out and went back to sleep.
So I decided it was time to try this with Audrey. We started a bad habit over the winter break with bringing her into bed with us and it was time to break that habit. Why? Because it's a habit and we want her to learn to sleep independently. Jeff and I were in agreement to try the sleep training.
Audrey went down around 7:30 as always and slept for about and hour and a half before she started crying. I went in and comforted her, even got her back to sleep. But the moment I was out of her room, she cried. I told Jeff, "We're going to let her cry for 5 minutes and then go in." Jeff agreed but Audrey got REALLY angry and started screaming! I turned my head to look towards her room and when I turned back to Jeff, he was gone. I thought, "Great. He couldn't handle it. He's going in to comfort her." Sure enough, I heard a sound in Audrey's room and then the bathroom door opened (the bathroom separates her room from our room, which was where I was standing).
"Mommy!" Audrey cried... but she wasn't being held by Jeff. The noise I heard was her climbing up and out of her crib and heading towards our room! I couldn't believe it!
I grabbed her and set her on our bed and spent the next 10 minutes examining her. Did she fall on her head? Is she okay? Do I need to call the doctor? She looked really dazed and confused but I watched her pupils and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She probably surprised herself in what she did. I then had to explain to her that she is not allowed to climb out of her crib because it is dangerous. I told her Mommy and Daddy sleep in the big bed and asked her who sleeps in the crib? She responded, "Baby." And I told her she is the baby and she needs to sleep in her crib.
But I wasn't about to put her back in there if she was just going to crawl out again. Our mistake was that the crib had not been lowered to the very bottom and we kept a baby swing by her crib for the music. Well, the batteries are dead so there was no need for the swing! The next day, Jeff lowered the crib and I packed away the baby swing and moved any and all other furniture away from her crib. I'm pretty sure she used the crib as a foothold to get herself up and out. What a smart baby....
So the next night, I changed her bedtime routine just a little. She always takes a bath, gets dressed, hair combed, brush teeth, and read books. Then I usually rock her to sleep and put her in her crib asleep. Well, I decided to change that part because a.) her crib is so low I was worried it'd be difficult to lower her without waking her and b.) it may be good practice for her putting herself to sleep in the near future. So I walked her to her crib and laid her down. She smiled at me. I asked if she wanted a blanket. "yeah," she said. I got her a blanket and asked if she wanted me to turn off the lights. "yeah," so I turn off the lights. I return to rub her tummy and gently hum to her. She'd say "Mommy?" quite often but never budged. I was worried she'd try to stand but she didn't. I kept rubbing her tummy and humming but slowing stopped both. Then I quickly and quietly left.
She fell asleep but we're still having trouble sleeping through the night. This is frustrating to me because she used to be able to sleep at least until the early morning (4am). At that point, I'd have no problem bringing her into bed with us because we'd all be getting up within a few hours. But lately, she's been waking around midnight or earlier and wanting nothing but to cuddle.
A different coworker reassured me that this is a phase and pretty soon Audrey won't want to cuddle us. She said "she's only young once" and stuff like that and really helped to take some of that guilt and frustration off my shoulders. It's true. When she's in our bed, she sleeps soundly the rest of the night. If she were continuing to wake while she was in there then yes, something should be done. But eventually, we're all getting a good night's sleep. I'm still a little torn - I still feel it's a bad habit but secretly, both Jeff and I look forward to cuddling our baby in the night!
Additionally, I think we're lucky that Audrey at least goes down around 7:30 and sleeps a good half of the night before waking. If she didn't, then Jeff and I wouldn't have our adult time and then I think we'd feel the strain of having to share a bed with Audrey. But her schedule is working for us for now.
All in all, I think it's true that you should just do what's best for YOU and your family. Listen to others' advice but take it with a grain of salt. I don't think we're harming our little ones to coddle them just a bit while they still want to be coddled - those days won't last forever!
During work, I chatted with a coworker who is currently "sleep training" her daughter, who is 2 months younger than Audrey and doing the exact same things Audrey has been doing. They go down in their crib then after a while cry for Mommy and stand up in their crib until someone comes to their aid. She was letting her baby come into the adult bed and sleep the rest of the night there. Jeff and I have been doing the same thing with Audrey. She said she was doing that because her baby was sick but now that she's better, it's time to train her to stay in her crib.
She told me when the baby initially cries, she goes in and comforts. When baby cries again, she waits 5 minutes then goes in to comfort. This continues with the intervals increasing - next 10, then 20. She told me when it was the 20 minute interval, she was laying in her bed listening to her baby screaming and feeling like a terrible mom. But when she still had 11 minutes left of waiting, the house grew silent. Her baby had tired herself out and went back to sleep.
So I decided it was time to try this with Audrey. We started a bad habit over the winter break with bringing her into bed with us and it was time to break that habit. Why? Because it's a habit and we want her to learn to sleep independently. Jeff and I were in agreement to try the sleep training.
Audrey went down around 7:30 as always and slept for about and hour and a half before she started crying. I went in and comforted her, even got her back to sleep. But the moment I was out of her room, she cried. I told Jeff, "We're going to let her cry for 5 minutes and then go in." Jeff agreed but Audrey got REALLY angry and started screaming! I turned my head to look towards her room and when I turned back to Jeff, he was gone. I thought, "Great. He couldn't handle it. He's going in to comfort her." Sure enough, I heard a sound in Audrey's room and then the bathroom door opened (the bathroom separates her room from our room, which was where I was standing).
"Mommy!" Audrey cried... but she wasn't being held by Jeff. The noise I heard was her climbing up and out of her crib and heading towards our room! I couldn't believe it!
I grabbed her and set her on our bed and spent the next 10 minutes examining her. Did she fall on her head? Is she okay? Do I need to call the doctor? She looked really dazed and confused but I watched her pupils and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She probably surprised herself in what she did. I then had to explain to her that she is not allowed to climb out of her crib because it is dangerous. I told her Mommy and Daddy sleep in the big bed and asked her who sleeps in the crib? She responded, "Baby." And I told her she is the baby and she needs to sleep in her crib.
But I wasn't about to put her back in there if she was just going to crawl out again. Our mistake was that the crib had not been lowered to the very bottom and we kept a baby swing by her crib for the music. Well, the batteries are dead so there was no need for the swing! The next day, Jeff lowered the crib and I packed away the baby swing and moved any and all other furniture away from her crib. I'm pretty sure she used the crib as a foothold to get herself up and out. What a smart baby....
So the next night, I changed her bedtime routine just a little. She always takes a bath, gets dressed, hair combed, brush teeth, and read books. Then I usually rock her to sleep and put her in her crib asleep. Well, I decided to change that part because a.) her crib is so low I was worried it'd be difficult to lower her without waking her and b.) it may be good practice for her putting herself to sleep in the near future. So I walked her to her crib and laid her down. She smiled at me. I asked if she wanted a blanket. "yeah," she said. I got her a blanket and asked if she wanted me to turn off the lights. "yeah," so I turn off the lights. I return to rub her tummy and gently hum to her. She'd say "Mommy?" quite often but never budged. I was worried she'd try to stand but she didn't. I kept rubbing her tummy and humming but slowing stopped both. Then I quickly and quietly left.
She fell asleep but we're still having trouble sleeping through the night. This is frustrating to me because she used to be able to sleep at least until the early morning (4am). At that point, I'd have no problem bringing her into bed with us because we'd all be getting up within a few hours. But lately, she's been waking around midnight or earlier and wanting nothing but to cuddle.
A different coworker reassured me that this is a phase and pretty soon Audrey won't want to cuddle us. She said "she's only young once" and stuff like that and really helped to take some of that guilt and frustration off my shoulders. It's true. When she's in our bed, she sleeps soundly the rest of the night. If she were continuing to wake while she was in there then yes, something should be done. But eventually, we're all getting a good night's sleep. I'm still a little torn - I still feel it's a bad habit but secretly, both Jeff and I look forward to cuddling our baby in the night!
Additionally, I think we're lucky that Audrey at least goes down around 7:30 and sleeps a good half of the night before waking. If she didn't, then Jeff and I wouldn't have our adult time and then I think we'd feel the strain of having to share a bed with Audrey. But her schedule is working for us for now.
All in all, I think it's true that you should just do what's best for YOU and your family. Listen to others' advice but take it with a grain of salt. I don't think we're harming our little ones to coddle them just a bit while they still want to be coddled - those days won't last forever!