Sleep Training and Neurotic Mommy
So we have been working on sleep training. Literally, training Aftan how to go to sleep by herself and without a swaddle. Actually, it came out of desperation. Aftan got up at 3:30a.m. one morning a couple of days ago and we just did not have the energy to rock her to sleep. She cried for about 15-20 minutes (we checked on her a couple of times to make sure she was okay) then she fell asleep. So ever since then we have been putting her down to sleep while she is still awake and she has been slowly been learning to get herself to sleep. Sometimes she only cries for a few minutes and then goes to sleep. Actually, if she cries for 5 minutes we go and rub her back and tell her it's okay and she is asleep after that in about 2-3 minutes. She just needs to be reassured. This morning she got up at 8:30a.m. to eat and when I put her back down at 9:30 she rolled over on her stomach and went right to sleep. No fussing at all. That's another thing, though. She always rolls over to her stomach to sleep. Everything you read and all the pediatricians say that they have to sleep on their back or the run a high risk of dying of SIDS. So I called the pediatrician today to set up Aftan's six month checkup. While I had them on the phone I asked about her sleeping on her stomach and told them how much it worried me that it keeps me up at night. They said not to worry about it that once she is able to roll onto her stomach she will find whatever position she likes best and will sleep however she wants and that the risk of SIDS is lower after they can roll. And she can roll. She spent the other night waking up every few hours because she was practicing rolling. Sure enough, the next day she had it down pat. She can roll both from her stomach to back and from her back to stomach. She is even trying to sit up on her own now. She can manage a few seconds and then she falls forward but she is working on it. I think that by the time she is 5 months she will have it down. Anyway, I think she is getting up from her nap so I will go get her and let her play for a while. Later.