Friday, October 12, 2007

Sweet Dreams

Jericho had sweet dreams in her own bed, in her own room last night. Over the phone, last week, I told Seth that when I got home from Chicago I thought I would be ready for Jericho to start sleeping in her own room. She's always slept good, which her mama doesn't take for granted, but she's really wiggly when she sleeps and sometimes it keeps me up. Plus, she has a daddy who talks and sometimes walks in his sleep and I don't want Seth keeping her awake (or doing anything crazy to her, I have story's but I don't want to have any that involve the baby. I love you honey even when you do crazy things in your sleep!) I asked Seth if he was ready for Jericho to be in her own room and he said he was just waiting for me to say something. So, the night we got home from Chicago Seth asked if Jericho was going to sleep in her own room. I told him we could start that next week. Jericho did alright as we were traveling but we stayed at a few different places and were around a ton of different people so I wanted to wait another week and let things get back to normal a little bit before we made the transition to her room. Plus, she's only six weeks old. When I hear that a baby is six weeks I still think newborn, but seven weeks sounds so much older to me, I no longer think newborn. Yes, I was going to wait till seven weeks when I no longer thought of her as a newborn. Well, that did not happen her daddy gave me the "why wait" speech and it worked and Jericho did great. She seemed to take well to her big ol' crib that she looks so small in.

Now that we have her in her own room my next question is when do you start letting them cry themselves to sleep? Any of you parents out there let me know what you did. How long was it before your little one no longer needed to be rocked to sleep? Did you ever let your little one cry themselves to sleep? How do you know if they're ready for that? How old were they? I don't have a problem with still rocking Jericho to sleep she's still little, but I have a hard time figuring out what to do when I finally get her to sleep, put her down, only to have her crying 5 minutes later because she's not being held (she's been spoiled in getting held while she sleeps because of all the family that we had up here the first two week of her life, she was never put down, and going to visit everyone last week) When she does this do I pick her up and get her to sleep once again? Do I just let her cry, although I don't know how long I'd be able to just let her cry at this point, or do I leave her in the crib and try to comfort her while she lays there. Again any advice would be appreciated. I know everyone is different. I'm not stressing over it I know we will and are figuring it out as we go. These are just some things I'm wondering about as Jericho grows.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

6-8 weeks would have been a good time to let Oceana start crying herself to sleep. But we never did, and it's one thing I really regret. She still doesn't sleep consistently through the night and she's 18 month old. No, I'm not kidding. I wish we'd let her cry, but we always felt bad because we lived with other people after she was 3 weeks old, and we felt bad having to make them listen to it all. That said, I think it's safe to let them cry from 6-8 weeks, but not more than 10 mins - believe me, the first time I did it, I stood and clutched the kitchen counter for the entire time so I wouldn't run in and get her! It's hard. Don't do it when Seth's not home first time around - like for a nap - it may result in tears for you too. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I usually just let my kids cry. Soon enough they will fall asleep and it's better for them in the long run. My kids were also ready to drive when they got to about 10 weeks, so maybe they just matured faster than most.

Learning and Growing said...

I just wanted to comment on this topic. As someone who has a lot of experience in early childhood and child development, I could never let Elliot "cry it out" at this age. Infants are far too young to have an understanding of cause and effect (example: I cry, you will come running.) They really don't start developing the idea that you are even in the next room until about 6 months. By that point you can usually sleep train your baby by using consistant routines, so you shouldn't have a problem. My feeling is that if she is crying, it is probably for a reason. Make sure she is well fed, changed and ready for sleep before you even put her down. You don't need to jump up at the first sound, but if she is crying don't feel bad about comforting her. You can't spoil an infant or love her too much. She will feel a lot more secure knowing you are there, and will probably be a better sleeper in the future due to that secure feeling. Email me anytime if you have questions! andreasilvis@gmail.com