I think we can officially quit calling it “sleep training” and start calling it sleeping!!! K had one wake up last night with a few seconds of noise/almost fussing and went right back to sleep. She followed it up with 2 long naps again today, thanks to her Doc-A-Tot!!!

It was super productive day for me while Kensie hung out with her Grandma, B! She also got another early birthday present! 

B got her a “Little Balance Box”! I had never heard of these, but Brenda did some research since she knew she liked climbing the boxes at the gym and I was looking for a “walk behind” toy and found it!

It slides, can be used as a toddler table later, and the top is made so she can smack/drum on it! K and B spent the afternoon “walking” around the house and playing with anything and everything! 

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Safe to say Kensie had a blast because when B changed her diaper after lunch, she reached for her crib and  went right down for a nap 30 minutes early before I even made it back home from errands! 

Kensie came to the gym with me this afternoon while I coached and she decided to take up DJing. 

She was pretty tired but she made it through, all smiles, and went RIGHT to sleep for me after her bath! 

I’m so thankful we took the weekend to give sleep training a go! I almost changed my mind and cancelled our attempt…seriously, ask Chris. I told him I didn’t think I could do it and I’d just keep feeding her when she wakes at night. Sounds ridiculous but I was nervous because her real, hard crying gives me anxiety, and I KNOW I am not the only mom out there with this, lol. It’s hard to listen to your baby be upset when you know you could go in and fix it so quickly/easily. I’m so grateful she took to it right away, had no real meltdowns and we didn’t have another nightmare of a night like the last time we tried! 

I tried to document what we did in the  weekend posts but I’ve had a few conversations about the details with friends that have asked so I figured I’d share the things we learned from trying it a few months ago (unprepared) to this time that helped us be more successful with it:

– Set a time and stick to it. 10 minutes worked for us. (Last time felt like 20 but it was probably less than 5, lol)

– Only dad can go in after the time limit is up, if they’re still crying. Especially if you still breastfeed. (Oops. I had to. I couldn’t just sit and listen to it!!!)

– Dad can’t pick up. Just pat back/comfort/say it’s ok and time to sleep. (Oops x2)

– Don’t make them cry just to give them what they want in the end, then it is unnecessary and they learn nothing from it. (3 strikes…and we’re out.) 

It truly felt like a hopeless mission the first go around. The Sleep Sense book helped us a ton this time and even though we added the nightlight/pacifier and a dream feed (not recommended in book 🤷🏼‍♀️), I am thrilled it worked for us! (Sidenote: the dream feed is also because I HATE pumping .)

Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself here, but I think I can safely say “goodnight”. 😉