Sleep Training

The first step is to admit you have a problem…  Well, Houston, we have a problem.  Unfortunately, neither Kayla nor I necessarily want to get rid of this…problem.  You see, for the past year we’ve created a very mutually agreeable night time routine with our daughter Adalyn.  We draw her a warm bath, read her a book or two, and then offer her a nice, warm, bottle of milk before rocking her to sleep.  Typically, she’ll slip into a small coma until around  1 or 2 AM and then give us a little… “call”… through the baby monitor for one of us to escort her into our bed.  She somehow understands that Mommy and Daddy have to get up in just a couple of hours to get ready for work and that we’re just lazy enough to stick her into our bed instead of soothing her back to sleep in her own room.  When we put her between us, she sleeps like an angel.  WE sleep like angels.  Everybody’s happy.  So what’s the problem?  We never really gave it any thought until we received a scolding from our pediatrician, Dr. C.  Oh, Dr. C’s warned us.  Lots of times.  “The longer you wait, the harder it’ll be,” she says.  “If you don’t stop soothing her to sleep and letting her snooze in your bed, it’ll be that much harder to break her of the habit the older she gets.”  Whelp, turns out Dr. C’s right.  With the news of the twins we realize we’ll more than likely have our hands full, especially in the evenings.  So, we figure if we can get Adalyn to go to sleep by herself, putting her down right after her bottle but before she falls asleep, then things will be that much easier when we’re trying to take care of the other little rascals.  I guess we didn’t think to consult Adalyn’s opinion on the whole process before giving it a whirl.  The girl is not taking to it like we had hoped.  Although things have gotten considerably better now that a week has gone by.  The first bout lasted an hour.  I laid Adalyn down, kissed her good-night, and promptly left the room, closing the door behind me.  She, realizing what I had just done, immediately stood up and protested.  So, I went back in, laid her back down, told her “it’s time for sleep,” and promptly left the room.  This dance went on for what seemed to be forever.  She went through stages.  First, it was upsetting.  Then it was a game:  She would see me come in and try to run to the other end of the crib before I could get my hands on her, smiling the whole time.  Then, it was upsetting again.  After a while, she wore herself out and couldn’t stand.  So, she would sit there and call out.  Finally, exhausted, she couldn’t even hold her head up and went to sleep.  Kayla’s experience the next evening wasn’t any better.  Her bout lasted an hour and a half.  But after the second night things started to get better.  I think Adalyn now realizes Kayla and I are both serious about the new routine and we’re delighted to report that we’re now around the 30-45 minute mark.  Hopefully things will continue to get easier and our bout times shorter.  We sure will miss the snuggle time with Adalyn but we know this new routine is in the family’s best interest.  This whole experience has now got us thinking… what do we have to look forward to come potty training time?  Doh!