Well, it started Thanksgiving night. I was sick and tired of being tired and woken up in the night repeatedly by little Miss Aubrey. She is now 8 months old and fully capable of sleeping through the night without having to bed fed, cuddled, and rocked back to sleep. I decided that I was enabling her not to sleep through the night by herself when I would get up to feed her. It seemed to be a quick fix at the time, but the habit needed to stop.
I decided that since I would be home over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and could afford some sleep deprivation, I wanted to give it a try. I would start putting Aubrey to bed sleepy, but not sleeping, and let her "cry it out." I would go in every 5-10 minutes to comfort her but would not get her out of her crib and not feed her.
As they say, the first few nights were rough as she would be waking up wanting a "snack" to fall back asleep. But, when I came into her room, I just patted her and told her to go back to sleep. She would calm down when I was in there, but would become more upset as I would leave. It was hard to hear her scream her head off, but she must not have realized how stubborn her Mommy can be yet :) I was determined to make it work.
So, after several nights waking up crying, and letting her "cry it out" for almost up to an hour at times, I think it has finally worked! Last night she did not cry at all, she did not eat, she did not wake up until I got her up at 6:30! I couldn't believe it!
This is going to be the start of a very happy life of sleep for me! She still has a cold so I heard her coughing several times in the night but she was doing it in her sleep as it didn't seem to bother her! So, all in all, I wish I would've done this months ago, but I guess I can just be happy that it seems to have worked for us! YAY!
