Re-Training II: Crying It Out

Here it is a week and a half after I last wrote and the crying it out for Harper continues. Even after she showed progress last time, the waking up started again- sometimes once, sometimes three times a night. I stopped feeding her, but I would still occasionally go to her and comfort her or give her some Tylenol if I thought it was the teething bothering her. After talking to my Baby Wise Guru and reading Chronicles of a Baby Wise Mom, I finally decided to listen to the nagging voice telling me that the dream feed was disrupting Harper's nighttime sleep. I kept thinking I didn't want to try until she was sleeping through the night, but the waking up at night and the fact that she wasn't that eager to eat at all feedings made me think she really didn't need it. I dropped the dream feed for Z when he was just over six months, so I knew it was long past due.

If I was going to drop the dream feed I had to figure out how to put Harper down to sleep at 7:30pm and not disturb her until the morning. I've kept that dream feed much longer than was really necessary because it was an easy way to move her from our bedroom to the living room for the night. After some cleaning and rearranging, Harper is now sleeping the night away in our laundry room. It's right off the kitchen but there are some curtains that hang half-way down to block some of the light. We kept the kitchen lights off and tried to be quiet when in the kitchen.

Last night was the first night and I can call it a success. After many nights of Harper waking up in the middle of the night and crying for an hour or more, I was prepared for the worst. But she woke up at 9:30pm, 10:15pm and 11pm and cried for anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. Then she slept the rest of the night! There are bags hanging in the laundry room that serve as a colorful mobile type distraction. And I added a soft lamb rattle for her to play with (advice from my BWG and our pediatrician). Sure enough, this morning around 6am I heard the rattle but she didn't make a peep. I didn't feed her until 7am!

With just a small taste of dropping that feeding I'm already feeling better. There will probably be more nights of crying, but at least I feel confident enough in the change that I can stick with it. Also, I think going to four feedings a day will start to slow down my milk production, which is actually something I want. I'm ready to be done with nursing, but trying to be patient since Harper is putting up a huge fight with the formula. That's another story. For today, I'm just happy to be making some progress that is good for Harper and for me.