18:45 Baby in crib, hubby cooking dinner, and me blogging. Background music? None, just the sweet sound of simmering chicken and Justin telling me about his day. I can’t believe I’m writing this… sleep training round 3 was such a success!! (Knock on wood)

As I mentioned in sleep training round 2, things had gotten out of control in our home. Chiara was spending all of her naps next to me and half of the night as well. Yes, I was getting some sort of rest during the day, and yes the crying was no longer a problem, but at night… neither Justin nor me were getting enough sleep. Between visitors and a tough schedule coming up for Justin we decided to postpone sleep training and tough it out for over a month. The 2-3 days before a game, Justin would go sleep in the den/guest room and I would deal with Chiara’s tossing and turning. Although some days I felt like a zombie, I sought comfort in knowing that come May 22nd as our schedules calmed down we’d give sleep training one more and possibly final try. Since our main problem had to do with Chiara moving, sitting, and standing we decided that if this next round of sleep training didn’t work, we’d wait it out. Meaning, we’d hold off any sort of training until she learns how to walk/run and hope that between tiring herself out, maturing, and most major physical developmental milestones being out of the way, Chiara would be ready for a 4th round.

Luckily for us, we won’t have to hold off. The first night was the toughest. At bedtime (using the same plan as before) she cried on and off for almost an hour. Later, when she woke up at 1am another hour of crying, the next morning she woke up at 7am. Honestly, that was way better than expected. The crying was rough on me, but the results kept me strong. On day two, bedtime crying was down to 45min and by day 3 down to 10. By the end of the week, she was going to bed without crying! Part 1, success! Now for the exciting part: she has been sleeping through the night!! Waking up anywhere between 5:30-6:30, yes a little earlier than we would like, but beggars can’t be choosers!

So sounds like it was easy huh? I was shocked at how hard it was emotionally. Chiara and I have been having a lot of fun lately. As she continues to grow and her personality starts to show I finally start to feel that all the work we’ve put in is starting to pay off (whole other blog story). I've also gotten used to napping with her, it's usually the only cuddling I get since when she's awake she's go go go! So although I knew it wasn't the best and it was ruining bedtime sleep, I came to love those moments of quiet and cuddling before she fell asleep. She's got so much energy that she'd spend 10-20min in my arms just staring at me or the wall, playing with my face or just rubbing my arms and hands. It was her little wind down routine. So yea, sleep training became hard. For the first time, it hurt to hear her cry. It made me feel nauseous to hear her yell at me as I walked out the door and it broke my heart to see her standing and reaching out to me as soon as I walked in the door.

I am grateful for Justin and for a couple of my friends who were by my side through the first two nights. Reminding me that helping her learn to sleep on her own would benefit fit both of us in the long run. I know that although she had to cry for 3 nights, she still loved me in the morning and I know that as catch up on sleep and crawl out of my zombie/sleep deprived state I will continue to become a stronger and better mom.

I’m not singing we are the champions yet. I know that we still have rough nights ahead – night mares, more teething, separation anxiety, sickness… but I also now know that with a little nudging in the right direction, she can do it, she can sleep through the night on her own and as long as I am getting night time sleep a few days a week… I can get through the busy hustle of our non-stop days and any rough nights that come our way.

Wondering about our naps? Those are a whoooolleeeee other story that I’ll leave for another time. For now, I am happy with better nights.

Snip, snap, snout...

...this tale's told out!

Did you miss the first or second round? Click here for    Part 1    Part 2