The (joys of) sleep training
A few of you my have noticed my absence and lack of blog posts over the past few weeks. I sincerely hope that you have. It would make my day! If you haven't missed me it's probably because you've only just stumbled across my blog!
A few weeks ago (29 April to be exact, so that is nearly 19 days ago!!!) I wrote a post on the (joys of) cot to bed transition. Well, what a joy and learning experience those 19 days have been. As I said, the bedtime sleep time went completely out the window. In fact, I think it left the county, possibly country.
By the time my husband and I got to bed we would be lucky if we had 6 hours sleep a night before getting up for work. Time to relax and wind down before bed wasn't happening and my mind began to slowly turn to mush. In the middle of a phone conversation I went completely blank and tried to compensate with the fact that I'd been working since 8am and it was about 6pm when I was speaking to them and still at work. In the middle of an important client first meeting last week the same thing happened. I was merrily speaking away and giving my pitch when all of a sudden I just stopped. No idea of what I was talking about. No idea of what I wanted to say. Just no idea. It was worse than 'preggie brain'. I tried my best to recover from what I was saying which took the best part of 5 minutes and by which time they had probably begun to worry about my sanity.
It was right there and then that I decided that I needed to sort out this bedtime sleep time and fast. No more bringing my daughter downstairs and giving in at the first sign of a whimper or tear. It was time to channel my inner Super Nanny and use the stay in bed routine. My daughter is 2. She was going to bed at....(wait for it)....10.30pm! Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnn! Crazy! By that time I'm shattered so heaven knows what rocket fuel she was drinking in the day to keep her awake?
Anyway, as per usual, I digress. So night 1 of the 'pick up, put down' routine started off as usual. Dinner, CBebbies or Peppa Pig, bath time, massage (I should be so lucky!), 2 books (usually about bears) accompanied by a bottle of warm milk. I said goodnight to little one and then told her that I was going downstairs to read my book and I would come and check on her just now. We had cuddles and kisses goodnight and I calmly walked out of the room and part closed her bedroom door. Not even 30 seconds later I heard a gentle drop from the bed and pitter patter of toddler footsteps across the carpet. I opened the door before she could come out, gently picked her up, calmly put her in the bed and tucked her in and said good night.
By the 4th time of doing this she was starting to bring little toys and bits with her and each time I put her back, I would put the toys and other bits back exactly where they were in the first place and then she would repeat the same scenario. I tried to count how many times I picked her up and put her back into her bed but after about the 10th or possibly 15th time I stopped counting. I was actually happy to do this because there were no tears. There was no kicking or shouting or arching of her back in frustration and sheer anger at not being taken downstairs. She was tired and the gaps between me coming to put her back into bed were getting further apart. The perseverance and calm approach was working.
Long story short...
Night 1 bed time: 9 p.m. Result!
Night 2 bed time: 8:50pm. 10 minutes off of the current P.B.! Whoop whoop!
Night 3 bed time: 7.50p.m. Completely unbelievable!
Night 4 bed time: 7.30 p.m. Honestly. No jokes here my friends. We put her to bed and that was that.
This is the first time I a writing a blog post in nearly 19 days. I'm not clinging to nap times for dear life as the only time that I can have 'me time'. I happily did the house work the other day and may even happily bake for my husband. Wait. If I write it down, does it mean that I have to do it?!?!
I've list a few things that over the 19 days we discovered our daughter can now do:
A few weeks ago (29 April to be exact, so that is nearly 19 days ago!!!) I wrote a post on the (joys of) cot to bed transition. Well, what a joy and learning experience those 19 days have been. As I said, the bedtime sleep time went completely out the window. In fact, I think it left the county, possibly country.
By the time my husband and I got to bed we would be lucky if we had 6 hours sleep a night before getting up for work. Time to relax and wind down before bed wasn't happening and my mind began to slowly turn to mush. In the middle of a phone conversation I went completely blank and tried to compensate with the fact that I'd been working since 8am and it was about 6pm when I was speaking to them and still at work. In the middle of an important client first meeting last week the same thing happened. I was merrily speaking away and giving my pitch when all of a sudden I just stopped. No idea of what I was talking about. No idea of what I wanted to say. Just no idea. It was worse than 'preggie brain'. I tried my best to recover from what I was saying which took the best part of 5 minutes and by which time they had probably begun to worry about my sanity.
It was right there and then that I decided that I needed to sort out this bedtime sleep time and fast. No more bringing my daughter downstairs and giving in at the first sign of a whimper or tear. It was time to channel my inner Super Nanny and use the stay in bed routine. My daughter is 2. She was going to bed at....(wait for it)....10.30pm! Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnn! Crazy! By that time I'm shattered so heaven knows what rocket fuel she was drinking in the day to keep her awake?
Anyway, as per usual, I digress. So night 1 of the 'pick up, put down' routine started off as usual. Dinner, CBebbies or Peppa Pig, bath time, massage (I should be so lucky!), 2 books (usually about bears) accompanied by a bottle of warm milk. I said goodnight to little one and then told her that I was going downstairs to read my book and I would come and check on her just now. We had cuddles and kisses goodnight and I calmly walked out of the room and part closed her bedroom door. Not even 30 seconds later I heard a gentle drop from the bed and pitter patter of toddler footsteps across the carpet. I opened the door before she could come out, gently picked her up, calmly put her in the bed and tucked her in and said good night.
By the 4th time of doing this she was starting to bring little toys and bits with her and each time I put her back, I would put the toys and other bits back exactly where they were in the first place and then she would repeat the same scenario. I tried to count how many times I picked her up and put her back into her bed but after about the 10th or possibly 15th time I stopped counting. I was actually happy to do this because there were no tears. There was no kicking or shouting or arching of her back in frustration and sheer anger at not being taken downstairs. She was tired and the gaps between me coming to put her back into bed were getting further apart. The perseverance and calm approach was working.
Long story short...
Night 1 bed time: 9 p.m. Result!
Night 2 bed time: 8:50pm. 10 minutes off of the current P.B.! Whoop whoop!
Night 3 bed time: 7.50p.m. Completely unbelievable!
Night 4 bed time: 7.30 p.m. Honestly. No jokes here my friends. We put her to bed and that was that.
This is the first time I a writing a blog post in nearly 19 days. I'm not clinging to nap times for dear life as the only time that I can have 'me time'. I happily did the house work the other day and may even happily bake for my husband. Wait. If I write it down, does it mean that I have to do it?!?!
I've list a few things that over the 19 days we discovered our daughter can now do:
- She is now tall enough to open doors.
- She is now co-ordinated enough to take off her PJ bottoms and nappy and sit on the potty by herself. She did this around day 3 or 4 of the 19 day stint. Crazy to think of this little person toddling around upstairs being capable of doing things completely on her own.
- She can tear off a single sheet of toilet paper, blow her nose, lift the toilet seat and chuck the paper away. So independent!
- She can have extremely in-depth conversations with her stuffed animals. Possibly plotting her vengeance against mommy and daddy??
- She could possibly be an opera singer one day. She has an amazing lung capacity!
- She can multi task by carrying Peppa Pig in her mouth (by biting onto her leg), carry her ducky pillow under one arm and bottle of milk in the other, and still open the door.
- She can drop her head and lift her big brown eyes like an adorable puppy and make me give in to her every need. Well, we always knew this but never realised how much she used it to her advantage.
- The wheels on the bus go round and round, "all day long". Song of the moment. Just like she could stay awake all day long.
- She can stack her stacking cups faster than I can do them and possibly any adult. It's insane how quickly she can put them back into each other.
Off to clean the house now! Yippee!!
Ax
Fab, building up to some sleep training in our house too!
ReplyDeleteIt is actually less daunting that it sounds. The worst bit was the idea that it might not work, but it honestly does. Hoorah for Super Nanny!
DeleteCongratulations! I bet you all feel better for the early nights. Nice to see you back :-)
ReplyDeleteI feel like a new woman I tell you! Raindows and sunshine and fluffy bunnies! Must go have a good read of your blog shortly xxx
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