Back in my last post (almost 6 months ago!) we were trying to introduce a nap routine and were trying a few methods that a mummy friend had had success with. Our take on it mainly involved timing the monster and putting her down once she reached an agreed length of time awake. We stayed in the room with her and let her cry whilst trying to do everything to soothe her EXCEPT picking her up. We were always visible and there was plenty of physical comfort being offered.
In theory it was brilliant, this wasn't a crying it out method as we hadn't left the room. There was one thing we didn't plan for, our daughter has had a wicked temper since she was born and she has inherited both mine and my husbands stubbornness.
There is a reason day 3 wasn't documented and why the blog came to such a grinding halt. After a huge meltdown every time we neared the bedroom, a mummy snot and tear fest break down and a point blank refusal to sleep AT ALL, we realised our tiny human will not be swayed on some things, sleeping to schedule was one.
This severely knocked my confidence and left me with a baby that was grumpy from tiredness ALL the time, all this whilst battling my own sleep deprivation hell.
So are we still facing the daily tantrums and refusal to sleep? No.
In the end I submitted to watching her for signs of tiredness and then feeding her to sleep led down on our bed. Is it a method the experts recommend? No, but it is a method a sleep deprived and at the end of her tether Mother does.
Ella went from refusing to nap to having two 90 minute naps a day. We went back to the baby led method which I personally felt more comfortable with. When she fell asleep we surrounded her with pillows to ensure she couldn't roll off the bed and made sure there was no fabric or loose items that would pose a suffocation risk.
I wouldn't have tried this with her when she was much younger and we checked on her regularly (with a baby monitor as back-up). It's also something I would advise you research and consider very carefully before trying yourself as a LOT of health care professionals frown upon it. Ideally I'd have loved to feed her to sleep and then transition to her cot, but our monster woke every single time we attempted this.
Ella is now 11 months and my husband has taken over the naps as I'm back to work. She still sleeps about 90 minutes in the morning, but is down to only 45 in the afternoon. Since she started crawling it is no-longer safe to leave her on our bed and obviously he can't boob her to sleep like me. So she goes in to her cot (rages for 5 minutes), he lays on the bed and puts her favourite music on his phone so it is barely audible. Sometimes she decides she's not tired (despite eye rubbing and ear pulling for the last 30 minutes!) and it turns in to a battle of wills between the two of them (he always wins) but most of the time she settles down within 10 minutes and falls asleep.
Do what makes you feel comfortable when it comes to sleep. As long as your baby is safe, trust your instincts and don't be swayed by studies and 'experts' that tell you your child will never learn to self settle unless you make them.
