Self Soother ♥

"The most important thing she'll learn is that there is no way to be a perfect mother but a million way to be a great one!" Jill Churchill

You know that thing called sleep?! Something we all took advantage of until we decided to have kids, I really miss it! Not like, "oh I could really use a good nights sleep." more like "I think I could sleep for an entire month"! There has been a picture that has been floating around social media, you've probably seen it I'm pretty sure almost every mom I know has shared it! 

You've seen this right?! Aren't you tired of feeling like this?! As I'm sure you all know I love Anya so much but seriously?! Come on child your killing me over here!

 

In the beginning because Anya was early id wake up with her but id also sleep with her till noon! Then i used to boast so much about how much of an Amazing sleeper Anya was. She would sleep from 10 till 5 then go back to sleep till 7:30! I was in sleep heaven, well for a new mom at least! I don't know if this is karma for being so stoked on how well she slept but since just after Christmas I dont think there has even been a week that she has kept a schedule for sleep! Some nights she's up three times sometimes once sometimes she sleeps right through! I am beginning to wander what's worse, getting up multiple times every night or this crazy schedule she's got going on.

 

I posted on Facebook the other day asking if anyone would enlighten me with their sleeping secrets and got a few awesome ideas, but there was one in particular that stood out to me and three people sent it to me, so it's gotta work right?!

 

When I started reading the book I was pretty excited but scared at the same time. As much as I wanted a NEEDED sleep I love the cuddles Anya and I have at night and I think a part of me just wanted to have that forever. But come on who am I kidding physically I don't think I could go much longer, I was getting so sleep deprived I left my house in two different shoes and one was Johns! Yeah I think I needed this!

 

The steps are simple and easy to follow I thought! The first few things we needed to do. One remove all the things Anya depends on to go to sleep. Then establish an early bed time and routine that is between 20 & 30 mins and has your child, in my case, in bed between 7 & 8:30. We always kinda had a routine it just never started at the same time and Anya already had a pretty early bed time (between 7 & 7:30) so we only needed to establish a set time to start Anya's routine.

 

And a last was put your child to bed awake! Sounds pretty simple I guess minus the fact that they cry! Yeah I said it you kid is gonna cry. I'm already pretty big on not tending to Anya at her littlest cry so I didn't think this would be to hard. John gets mad cause I typically laugh when Anya cries and yeah that seems mean but I laugh cause I don't want to cry cause I feel extremely guilty for letting her cry and I dont want to cry! But if there is one thing I have to thank this book for its helping me understand that it is ok! I already to a point believed it was ok but I still felt very guilty and bad about it!

 

We are now on Day three and have done two nights following the steps the first day Anya cried for about 15 -20 mins before she fell asleep and was up once in the night. The first set of naps we did were REALLY hard she cried for 45 mins while I cried downstairs not wanting to cave but feeling so bad! She did fall asleep tho! That night we did her bed time routine and I prepared for lots of crying seeing as that's how the day went. She didn't even cry for ten mins before she was asleep and slept from 7:30 till 7!!! Today we have done one nap with a total of two mins if crying!! We are only on day three and I'm sooooo Happy with the results so far!!!

 

I encourage every mom new and ones who have more then one kid to read the sleep sense manual! I am so thankful that John's cousin, his cousins husband and my friend Chelsea shared it with me and I am happy to pass it on to anyone who would like to give it a try!! Leave me your email and I will forward it!!

 

Happy sleeping Everyone! ♥♥♥

 

 

"Sleep is the golden chain that binds health and our bodies together!" Thomas Dekker