Weening and Sleeping

Avery decided randomly one day last week that she no longer wanted her Binkis (aka: pacifiers). It was quite possibly the easiest weening known to man! lol I didn't have to do a thing; in fact, I kept trying to give it to her at night to soothe her but she would just grab it and throw it away. So, that was the end of that....

Which leads me to my next point. Since the pacifier wasn't going to be any good anymore, the only way I could get her to go back to sleep at night was to pick her up, rock her, and sometimes even give her a few ounces of formula. On Saturday night she woke up every hour starting at about 1am. I picked her up each time and rocked her but she would wake up shortly after I layed her down in her crib. {She has also began to use her crib as a play-pin. She crawls around, stands up, sticks her arms through the rails to try and grab her toys outside of the crib... you name it. This was not going to cut it!} After about the 3rd time of rocking her I decided that she needed to learn the hard way. It was just as hard for me as it was for her I think. Around 5am I knew she wasn't hungry, hurt, or in pain from teething, so I went in there and layed her back down, rubbed her back and forehead for a few minutes, then left. I went in every 5 minutes if she was still crying but it took less than 30 minutes before she layed herself down and went to sleep. It was pretty awesome to hear her do that! She then slept until 7:30ish.

Sunday was better. She woke up 3 times but each time she only cried for less than 10 minutes and then went back to sleep. Monday, even better; she slept all of the way through until about 5 (when i heard the monitor I was shocked to see 5am on the clock!!) she started to fuss but I didnt rush in there. I gave her a minute, then went in and repeated everything and then left. She went right back to sleep. Tuesday, she slept all throught the night!!!! She woke up at 6:45 and I tried to get her down but she was pretty wide awake so we just got up.

I guess you could say that we let her "cry it out" as some call it. I had been thinking about it for months and talked to multiple people and read multiple books on methods for CIO. We had always been told that it only takes 2-3 nights and then you will be amazed at how well they sleep. IT'S SO TRUE! However, I never felt comfortable doing it because all it took to soothe her was her pacifier. I felt really bad taking that away if she still needed it. Some babies use their thumb, some use a blanket, and others a pacifier. The pacifier is so hard because if they loose it during the night then its hard to find and takes some coordination for them to learn to put it back in correctly on their own (being half asleep at the same time adds even more difficulty). Now that she decided that that wasn't good enough, I figured it was probably time to try something new. She is old enough now to know night vs day and is fully aware of her surroundings so I didn't feel as mean.

I really hope that she continues to sleep this good. We travel so much that that could put a kink in things; not to mention teething. I am just happy to say that it has worked and with hardly any pain and tears!