Sleep

I am here, writing this post, because I think I have achieved my goal...getting Wrennie to nap longer, and therefore sleep better at night.

For a couple of weeks I was tired. Wren would wake a couple of times in the night, or be up for the day around 5am. As a result, I would nap with her in the morning, and in the afternoon. I would bring her into my bed and put her to sleep beside me. After about 30 min, she would always stir and maybe cry a bit. I would pat her bum for a while, and she would drift off for another 30 or so. I was helping her to have a longer nap, and it was working.

After a few weeks of that, she started to sleep better at night again by only waking up once to feed. If she woke at 5am (because she had made a habit of it), we would pat her bum and she would fall asleep until about 6am.

Once I started getting sleep too, I put her down for naps in her crib. I would listen at her door at the half hour mark (when she seemed to wake for whatever reason). I would go in, and pat her bum if I heard her, and she would stay down for another 45 min. She was having a 9am nap and a 2pm nap regularly and sleeping longer!

Now for the past few days, I haven't really had to go in and pat her bum because she has stayed down the full length of time she needs (1hr-1.5hrs).

We have slowly increased her bedtime to 7pm over the past week and it's also been working. She goes down on average around 7:15pm and stays down until the middle of the night feed.

We only do a little bit of crying if she won't go to sleep whether it's for naps or bedtime, but if we follow that with a bum pat, we usually don't have much of a problem!

I clearly do not have a child that naps easily, and apparently needs about as much routine and predictability as her mom....okay and an early bedtime! Kenton and I have worked so hard to get to this place with her, and the hard work seems to have paid off. (Everything changes if she gets sick of course).

We are all happier because of it!!