Our Sleep Training Journey :: Day 5

I would like to thank everyone who has been so supportive of our sleep training. It is a huge encouragement during this physical and emotional challenge. I am starting to feel fatigued from waking to the alarm clock to dreamfeed and waking when Natalie cries. Like so many of the nights, last night was a combination of success and set-back.

Here is how it went:

8:05 - Natalie was in bed, she didn't cry or complain one bit, but it took her 15 minutes to fall asleep

11:18 - She screamed for 3 minutes and was very angry

11:30 - Dreamfeed, she somewhat woke up when I got her out of bed. I wondered if I didn't let her sleep for a long enough time after the screaming

2-3:25 - She was angry, very unsettled. She was rolling around a lot and fussing quite a bit. There was lots and lots of up and down throughout the hour. However, since she kept settling herself down we didn't go in her room to do any checks.

3:35 - Dreamfeed: again, she woke up when I entered the room. I think I need to give her a longer time after fussing to feed her.

7:00 - She began to stir and since it has nearly been 11 hours since she initially went to sleep, I woke her up rather than doing another dreamfeed (we wanted her to take an earlier morning nap anyway).

She took two pretty good naps today, but again had a hard time going to sleep. Lots of playing in her bed (which is MUCH better than screaming).

I am encouraged that the feedings were stretched once again she went 4 hours twice and 3.5 hours once. I also count it as a success that there were technically only two dreamfeeds and one was before I even went to bed. However, she was quite unsettled awoke easily. The fussy time for 1.5 hours was perplexing since she had been doing better settling down. However, I read that they often have a setback sometime in the first week so I am hopeful that is now over with.

I know this system will work, it may take a little longer than I had anticipated. It will be so worth it when we sleep through the night!!

Natalie also has the signs of the start of the cold that has been plaguing her sister. I am hoping that this doesn't set us back too far, but I also know how to get us back on track.

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. I am hoping to blog about more exciting things in the very near future ;-)