No Sleep 'til....

A couple of weeks ago, nights started getting really tough for us. Ava has never slept all the way through the night, but she was sleeping for a 5 or 6 hour stretch before needing to be fed. She would fall right back to sleep and sleep for another few hours before she was awake for the day. All the sudden, Ava decided that she didn't want to sleep at all unless she was being held. Obviously this was not ideal for Matt and I. I brought Ava to the doctor to make sure that she wasn't sick since it wasn't typical behavior for her. The doctor said that she was perfect (duh), but suggested that I read some sleep books to try to help us.

Ava and I went straight to the bookstore, which was a fiasco itself because I had to deal with the most explosive poop that she'd ever had, but that's a whole other story. I

got a book called Sleeping Through the Night by Jodi Mindell. The whole goal of this book is to help you get to the point where you can put your baby down in their crib awake and they can fall asleep themselves. Once they learn how to fall asleep on their own, they will be able to self-soothe during the night and fall back to sleep if they wake up and eventually will be able to sleep through the night.

It talks about positive and negative sleep associations and suggests using a modified 'cry it out' method. I definitely don't believe in letting my baby just cry and cry, plus the longer we would leave Ava alone, the more worked up she would get. Ava's negative sleep association was nursing and falling asleep while being held. I would nurse Ava and then either Matt or I would rock her until she fell asleep, then once she was sleeping we would put her in her crib.

After reading the book, we changed Ava's bedtime routine so that she was nursing earlier instead of right before we put her down so that she would stop associating sleeping with nursing. Once we put her in her crib, instead of just letting her cry on and on until she eventually got so worn out that she fell asleep, we tried what the book suggested. We put Ava down and would go check in every few minutes. If she was really upset, we'd pick her up to calm her down and then start over. That first night, it only took her about 1o minutes to fall asleep! We thought it was a fluke, but night after night she was falling asleep on her own.

We've been doing this for about a week and on average it takes Ava about 20 minutes to fall asleep, but she was sleeping for longer periods at night. She even slept for a 9 hour stretch one night! And when she woke up during the night, she was all smiley when I'd go in to feed her. That is, until last night...I don't know if she is having some type of sleep regression or just wasn't feeling good or what, but she was up every few hours and was screaming when she woke up. Around 4:30, Matt finally got up with Ava so that I could sleep a little. She ended up sleeping on him for a while, but woke up around 8 and that's when I took my shift. I got her to fall asleep around 10:15, but our good little dog woke her up after only 20 minutes. Needless to say, all 3 of us were exhausted and frustrated.

Lucky for us, I have the best sister in the world. Erin comes over every day for lunch since she only works about 5 minutes from our place. She loves it because she gets to see Ava and I love it because I get a chance to eat or shower. Today after she ate, she took Ava so that I could eat. Lately, Ava has also needed to know where I am at all times. So, while I was making lunch, Erin brought Ava into the kitchen and she just stared at me while I ate. She looked so exhausted, but just wouldn't fall asleep. Erin went outside and after walking around for about 5 minutes, Ava was fast asleep. Apparently she just needed some fresh air. My sister is amazing and is always here when I need her. I could never thank her enough for all that she does for us. Thanks Erin for being the best sister and friend EVER!

Hopefully this sleep thing is just an isolated event and we have a normal night tonight. Keep your fingers crossed for us!