Monday, January 26, 2009

I love Super Nanny!

I took a little blog hiatus...life was crazy through the holidays and then after, everytime I sat at the computer, I had no motivation to blog!

Part of my reason of not blogging has been my lack of sleep. Lucy slept through the night for several months, then started teething. Ever since then, she has not slept well so of course, neither have I. Over the holidays it was especially bad as she was getting her molars and was in pain for what seemed like weeks. Finally the molars broke through and I thought I could finally get her back into a good bedtime/sleep routine. Oh no, then the poor thing gets a bad cold. She is finally healthy so last Friday (when it didn't matter when the boys went to bed)I pulled out the sleep routine a la Super Nanny. I don't watch the show very often but happened to catch it a few weeks ago where a young toddler would not stay in her bed. Jo had the mom sit in the little girl's room with her back to the bed. Everytime she would get out of bed, the mom would get up without saying anything and put her back to bed. The first night I think she did it for over an hour and was exhausted but the toddler finally fell asleep in her bed. The next night was about half an hour and both the mom and the girl fell asleep. The third night, no problems at all; she went right to sleep.
So, I figure I can handle this method.
Night One: I get Lucy ready for bed, cuddle for a few minutes, pray and read a book then put her in her crib. As soon as I let go, she starts screaming! I just reassured her that I would be right there and plopped down on the floor. Surprisingly, the crying didn't bother me all that much...I just started listing all the states in my head alphabetically and trying to figure out which ones I missed. That kept my mind busy and not focused on Lucy. She was finally calming down when someone came in the room and then she started freaking out all over again! After about 50 minutes, no sleeping baby.
Night Two: Lucy takes a late nap and is up till about 11:00pm.
Night Three: Sam takes over night duty, wears his headphone to block out the crying. Lucy cries and cries and cries. After 45 mins she is screaming because someone walks by the room and is noisy so she wants him to rescue her. I go rescue her because it is a school night and past Noah's bedtime.
Night Four:tonight 6:45: Bath and pj's. Nurse for a few minutes (we are slowly weaning), prayer and then I put her in bed. We read a book, I kiss and tell her goodnight then turn the light down and sit on the floor. She doesn't cry! I'm confused so I just stay there. She looks at the book for a few minutes then lays down. She plays with her nightlight/aquarium/music box with her feet. She whines for about 2 minutes. She plays with the nighlight again. She is laying down quietly but still a little restless. Then she starts to cry but not hard. She remains down but cries for 5-10 minutes. Then, SILENCE. Then, SNORING!!!
I quietly walk out of the room. After 40 minutes of sitting in her room, I declare: VICTORY!!!

I LOVE Super Nanny!