So I haven't written here in over a month, mainly because of the craziness of work, school and baby. It's a sad fact that life sometimes moves so fast that I have no time to record it.
In this short month Eva has evolved and grown into an entirely different creature altogether. No longer colicky (hooray!), she now squeals and chortles loudly, loves to play peekaboo and likes to dance to Madonna's "Papa don't preach".
Her favorite food is mixed apple and sweet potato puree, served chilled, thank you very much. And her favorite move is the 360 degree wiggle-turn, where she balances-crawls in a circle.
The most significant development?
Eva now sleeps through the night.
!!!
!!!
Yes, APPLAUSE please. By "sleep through the night" I mean sleep for more than five hours at a stretch, as is the official definition. (Most people mistake sleeping through the night for a luxurious 12 hour stretch, which doesn't come until much much later, unless you have a magic baby of course)
It all happened when my therapist made the radical suggestion that both C & I do nothing at night. Yes, NOTHING. When Eva would awake at night, we were not supposed to rock, feed, touch or talk to her. It was lights off, and silence all around. Instead, we were supposed to play dead and let her roll around until she fell asleep on her own. I was told to give this a go for three days.
(We were only allowed to pick her up if she cried. Both C & I can't bear the Cry it Out method)
(We were only allowed to pick her up if she cried. Both C & I can't bear the Cry it Out method)
The skeptic in me was saying: "Are you nuts? If we didn't help Eva go back to sleep, she'd probably roll around until 6am."
Boy, was I wrong. The first night, she wiggled her way around our bed for 1.5 hours before falling asleep, exhausted. (I stayed determinedly silent under the pillow covering my face) The next night, 1 hour. The third night, 50 minutes.
Progress!
I was estatic. A mere seven days into this program Eva actually improved to just waking up for 5-20 minutes twice a night, and would GO BACK TO SLEEP ALL BY HERSELF.
It is not an exaggeration to state that my world just got brighter. And that I now have hope once again. Hallelujah!
Of course, there are still nights when she gets up and can't get back to sleep after over 2 hours, and we rock her as usual. But my little girl has come so far, and I can't be more proud of her.
It is not an exaggeration to state that my world just got brighter. And that I now have hope once again. Hallelujah!
Of course, there are still nights when she gets up and can't get back to sleep after over 2 hours, and we rock her as usual. But my little girl has come so far, and I can't be more proud of her.
3 comments:
oh my goodness! I wish I had a doc to teach me that! I probably made the mistake of attending to a whimper that's bred this monstrous sleep disaster baby :P I'm definitely thrilled for you babes- yes, a sleeping baby makes a world of a difference- pop the champagne!
and I definitely missed your posts- glad you got back!
love
D
Jo! She's so cute! adorable, pretty. And of course, congratulations on the sleeping through. That's so great that she didn't cry so you didn't have to resort to the Cry it out method.
A twist of fate intervened for me and Mish. She was always crying/screaming for me at around 2am every night and I would bring her to bed with us. One day, woke up at 7 and was like - Yaay she slept through, only to discover that my monitor battery connection had loosened and so wasn't working.
Rushed out, went to her room, she was fine, sitting up and lecturing Panda and Bunny. Brought her downstairs and Ani asked what was wrong last night as Misha screamed for an hour and a half non-stop. I slept through the whole thing. Ani thought that I was with Misha so that's why she didn't go up to check.
Anyways, the nights after that she would wake up, grumble for a bit and then go back to sleep on her own. I kinda miss schunuggling with her in bed though :(
D- ah yes me stumbling to a therapist who just happens to study developmental psychology really helped to explain things and gave me the confidence to actually carry it out. if i didn't have her support and the push from her I probably wld have carried on tending to every single moan too :P
Sam! thats so funny lah! fate wanted you to have more sleep :) but its good to hear it only took that one time for Mish to get used to the idea...
and yes, I was banned from sleeping with Eva last wk cos I had a bad cold so C took over. and I REALLY MISSED the snuggling. I think its her smell i miss most....
Post a Comment