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Shleepy Shleep Shleep

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Oh, sweet Gracie Girl. You goofy little thing.

This baby doll makes me smile and smile and smile. She is almost four months old now and becoming quite the socialite. She’s getting much better at sitting still in one place and enjoying herself without having to constantly be moving. She coos and laughs, but mostly she just sits around and smiles. Which makes me smile. Which makes her smile. Which makes me smile.

We’re a pretty useless bunch, I tell you.

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The only thing that Gracie was still having trouble with was sleeping through the night. She would wake up for a bottle around 2am, and then would wake up about every hour for the rest of the night. It was brutal. She was miserable. Chris and I were miserable. But we couldn’t figure out what to do.

I knew what the problem was. We had no schedule during the day, which meant Gracie was sleeping as much or as little as she wanted. And, I’ll be honest with you, I was okay with letting her sleep so much. It was easier. Then I only had one child to manage. But that really wasn’t fair to Gracie. Throwing her in a swing for a couple hours might make things easier for me, but it wasn’t stimulating for her and it certainly wasn’t helping her sleep at night.

Knowing this, I had a really hard time getting our family on a schedule. Key times during the day when both kids needed my attention (like during meal times, bath time, or bedtime), I just couldn’t juggle both of them. But I couldn’t figure out how to separate their schedules without killing myself. I’d get one fed, changed, and put down and then I’d have to start all over again with the second. By the time I finished the second, the first was needing something else. I felt like I was being pulled in a hundred different directions all day. And then, of course, there was the sleep schedule at night on top of it all. Surely, there had to be a better way to do things.

And then a couple weeks ago, an answer to my prayers!  I read a blog post by my friend, Erin, about how her little baby, Hayes, had gone from waking every couple hours in the night (much like Gracie) to sleeping 9-11 HOURS AT A TIME!!! She had used a method from two pediatric nurses who called themselves, “Moms on Call.” I would have been skeptical if I had heard it from anyone other than Erin, but our parenting approaches and styles are very similar and so I trusted her opinion and outcomes. I went online and Googled Moms on Call and was flooded with testimonies from moms who had the same results as Erin. Their babies were now sleeping 9-12 hours a night after only 2 or 3 days of this method.

That night, I told Chris I thought we should pay the money and do the online seminar that tells you all about this method. He said he thought it wasn’t worth the money. I said that was because he wasn’t the one getting up in the middle of the night with Gracie. He said I was exaggerating. I said that if we didn’t do it, then he would be the one who had to do the middle of the night from then on. He said we should pay the money and do the online seminar.

So we did. And, no lie, I think I’ve died and gone to nighttime heaven. In three days, Gracie went from her erratic sleeping schedule at night to sleeping 9-10 hours at a time! We put her down at 8:00pm and she gets up between 5:00 and 6:00am. It was like magic.

Before you all rush over to their website to sign up for their seminar, let me give you a warning.  This method uses a very strict cry it out routine at night.  I had mixed feelings about crying it out before.  On one hand, I completely understood the reasoning behind it.  Just like you can set patterns and schedules for babies to eat and nap throughout the day, you can use crying it out to help set their sleep schedule at night.  I totally get that and agree with it.  But I always felt like I was taking the easy way out by just sitting there while my baby cried.  What Moms on Call showed me was that if you’re putting in the time and giving your baby the attention they need during the day, the crying at night doesn’t last long and it ends with them getting a healthy, full nights sleep.  By putting my focus on the daytime routine, I felt better about letting Gracie cry for those two nights it took her to get into the routine of sleeping through the night.

Moms on Call isn’t just about crying it out at night, though.  What it is more about is scheduling, particularly when you have multiple children.  Their seminar gives you routines and schedules to follow during the day to make sure your children are active and stimulated so that they are tired and ready to sleep at night.  My favorite part is that they give you actual time-slotted schedules you can model your day after and they have sample schedules specifically for families with infants AND toddlers.  As a person who functions better with a game plan, Moms on Call gave me the stability and strategy to plan and manage my family’s routines and that resulted in all of us getting a good night’s sleep.

They offer a program for newborns to 3 months old, one for 3-12 months, and one for 1 year to 5 years.  So, you can use them to prevent sleep problems with your baby or to address a sleep problem.  I can’t recommend this program enough.

Sleep is good.

The End.

14 Comments

  • Rachel

    I’m glad she is sleeping through the night. She is so adorable and growing up so quickly. We mostly followed the book Babywise which also wants you to let them cry it out which we do (just a little bit). When everything is super busy and we let her cry it out I feel guilty. However when my son is asleep and everything is going well and I let her cry it out, it feels good like we are making the right deliberate decision.

  • Heather@keepcalmandloveon

    One of the things that my mom still holds over my head (besides the 21 hour labor) is how it was over a year before I slept through the night. She finally, in a last ditch effort to get back some sort of sanity) let me cry it out. In 3 days I was sleeping through the night…she couldn’t believe she had waited so long to try that! Good for you for reclaiming your sleep time! 😉

  • Danielle

    My husband was the one that forced me to get the boys on a schedule early on. There were a few tears (mostly mine) but it worked awesome. I got so much sleep and so did they! Glad you are getting some sleep!

  • Waiting for Bulgaria

    My son didn’t sleep through the night until he was 9 months old, but from 4 months on, he would wake up between 2-4 a.m., take a bottle, and fall back asleep immediately. When he was around Gracie’s age I started putting him to bed between 7:30-8:00 and found he slept better. I always fed him if he was hungry (my ped. recommended we do ths), but that was it. If he was fed, dry, and healthy then he stayed in his bed (sometimes there were tears). I’m glad you have Gracie on a schedule. You can’t do that and work at the same time. You need some sleep.

  • Bec

    We used our own version of CIO, right around 4 mos old and never looked back. Best parenting decision we made yet.
    You will especially be happy of this decision once you go back to work.
    Happy sleeping!

  • Melissa

    Where did you find the sample schedules for families with infants and toddlers? I went through the web seminar this morning and also downloaded the book onto my kindle, but I have yet to see any schedules other than the original one.

  • Erin @ Blue-Eyed Bride

    I’m so glad it worked for Gracie, too. I am such a believer! We’re moving to the 8-7 schedule next week and I am READY. Let’s go, Hayes! 🙂

    In response to Melissa’s question… if you go to the very last part of the 3-12 month seminar, the sample schedules are there at the end.

  • RJ (Kids and Cast Iron)

    Thank you for writing this. I had read about it on a couple other blogs but no one really mentioned what the method involved was. I had toyed with the idea of buying it but hadn’t gotten around to it. I am not a believer of the cry it out method, I just don’t have it in me, so it would have been a waste of my money. Thanks for giving the complete picture! I am glad it worked for you though and that you are now able to get some more sleep!

  • Sara @ embrylovescookies

    Crying it out is a hard thing to do. I remember my heart breaking when we did it with my oldest. But, it totally worked after only one night for us! Of course, every baby is different. But, one thing I’ve learned about parenting is that if you are tired enough, you’ll try ANYTHING.

  • Kat @ Living Like the Kings

    so glad things are working out! we used ferber’s cry it out for peanut around 4.5 months and stuck to it (although i can’t even begin to describe how hard it was) but it freakin works! we love sleeping at night and so does peanut. i think on top of everything u said, it also teaches kids how to self sooth which is amazing for them for the rest of their lives!

  • Mom2Boys

    I’m a teacher too, and worked a full school year as a zombie before I used a similar method with my first son. He was 15 months old before I got up the nerve to do it! You did the right thing. I don’t understand how a person can criticise a parent for letting a child cry a little at night. It’s never good for a child to have a parent on the urge of a breakdown due to lack of sleep! Congratulations on finally getting some rest!

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