No Cry Sleep Solution - Day Who Knows...About a month later
I tried the NCSS for 12 days before doing the sleep logs again, and the only consistent thing I found--the only improvement that I noticed was bed time and wake time. My child went to bed at 8:00 (on average) and woke up at 7:00 (on average). Aside from that, nap times were still sporadic, though he did take at least 2 naps a day.
Well, now we're on Day Who-Knows, and I've given up actively trying to use the NCSS. On June 29 (I know the exact date thanks to Facebook), after about a month of attempting the NCSS, William somehow just "got it." He started sleeping through the night, and my night awakenings went from 7-9 to about 2-3. OMG. Sleep is a glorious thing. And one of those awakenings was just me. I remember a couple days before we left for our week-long vacation in Florida, I woke up at 2:45 because I had to pee. I looked down at W, who was still sound asleep. I gently got up, used the potty, got some water, and went back to bed, and my kiddo was still in the same position where I left him.
His nap times have become more regular: morning nap begins around 9:45-10:00 and he sleeps anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half; afternoon nap begins anywhere between 1:30 and 3:00 and (again) can last from 45 minutes to 3 hours. I suppose that isn't really consistency, but a lot of it has to do with how much activity and stimulation he's had that day. Not to mention growth spurts or teething. That just throws a wrench into the whole thing.
Well, since we've been on vacation, William has been sleeping at night like a champ. I am totally stoked about it. For Fourth of July, he stayed up late to watch the fireworks (from indoors, so the noise wasn't bad for him) and loved staring at all the sparkly lights in the sky. He fell asleep on my lap about an hour later. The next night (last night), he zonked out around 9:40, slept through a really bad thunderstorm (hard, hard rains pounding the windows and thunder rattling the walls) that kept me awake until about 10:30, and woke me up around 5:45. I changed his diaper when he woke up then, rocked him for about 5 minutes, then laid him back on the bed, where he slept until about 7:45. Since *I* got to sleep from 10:30 to 5:45 straight, I dozed until about 7:00, and then got up. I got dressed, putzed around on Facebook, and just enjoyed some quiet time.
I also want to add that though my kid still goes to bed nursing, before he fully rolls over and goes to sleep, he pulls away from the breast voluntarily. Sometimes he forgets and just munches, but I can tell the difference (cause munching on just the nipple hurts) and can remove the nipple without any protest. (He'll follow the nipple when I pull it away if he still wants it.)
So whatever I was doing in the first few weeks of trying the NCSS seemed to stick, though it didn't appear to be working at the time. Doing the logs are difficult when you're sleep-deprived because you have to rouse yourself to a state of consciousness to write anything moderately coherent, which makes it somewhat difficult to go back to sleep. But, now that I'm getting the REM sleep that I need, I remember what times I woke up the night before and generally what happened.
Another point to mention: William seems to be learning how to self-soothe during his brief awakenings. I've watched him shift and move, which he used to need me to nurse and comfort him back to sleep, but now he just rolls to a different position and he's back to sleep. All by himself. It's amazing to see the difference right before my eyes. I spent every night for months helping him go back to sleep at every single brief awakening, and now he appears to be doing it himself. Every now and then, I'll still stroke his hair to reassure him that I'm there, but that's all it takes.
I was about to swear off the NCSS as a solution that didn't work after about 15-20 days, but the author wasn't kidding when she said it'd take time. For me, it took about a month for me to see any changes.
Well, now we're on Day Who-Knows, and I've given up actively trying to use the NCSS. On June 29 (I know the exact date thanks to Facebook), after about a month of attempting the NCSS, William somehow just "got it." He started sleeping through the night, and my night awakenings went from 7-9 to about 2-3. OMG. Sleep is a glorious thing. And one of those awakenings was just me. I remember a couple days before we left for our week-long vacation in Florida, I woke up at 2:45 because I had to pee. I looked down at W, who was still sound asleep. I gently got up, used the potty, got some water, and went back to bed, and my kiddo was still in the same position where I left him.
His nap times have become more regular: morning nap begins around 9:45-10:00 and he sleeps anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half; afternoon nap begins anywhere between 1:30 and 3:00 and (again) can last from 45 minutes to 3 hours. I suppose that isn't really consistency, but a lot of it has to do with how much activity and stimulation he's had that day. Not to mention growth spurts or teething. That just throws a wrench into the whole thing.
Well, since we've been on vacation, William has been sleeping at night like a champ. I am totally stoked about it. For Fourth of July, he stayed up late to watch the fireworks (from indoors, so the noise wasn't bad for him) and loved staring at all the sparkly lights in the sky. He fell asleep on my lap about an hour later. The next night (last night), he zonked out around 9:40, slept through a really bad thunderstorm (hard, hard rains pounding the windows and thunder rattling the walls) that kept me awake until about 10:30, and woke me up around 5:45. I changed his diaper when he woke up then, rocked him for about 5 minutes, then laid him back on the bed, where he slept until about 7:45. Since *I* got to sleep from 10:30 to 5:45 straight, I dozed until about 7:00, and then got up. I got dressed, putzed around on Facebook, and just enjoyed some quiet time.
I also want to add that though my kid still goes to bed nursing, before he fully rolls over and goes to sleep, he pulls away from the breast voluntarily. Sometimes he forgets and just munches, but I can tell the difference (cause munching on just the nipple hurts) and can remove the nipple without any protest. (He'll follow the nipple when I pull it away if he still wants it.)
So whatever I was doing in the first few weeks of trying the NCSS seemed to stick, though it didn't appear to be working at the time. Doing the logs are difficult when you're sleep-deprived because you have to rouse yourself to a state of consciousness to write anything moderately coherent, which makes it somewhat difficult to go back to sleep. But, now that I'm getting the REM sleep that I need, I remember what times I woke up the night before and generally what happened.
Another point to mention: William seems to be learning how to self-soothe during his brief awakenings. I've watched him shift and move, which he used to need me to nurse and comfort him back to sleep, but now he just rolls to a different position and he's back to sleep. All by himself. It's amazing to see the difference right before my eyes. I spent every night for months helping him go back to sleep at every single brief awakening, and now he appears to be doing it himself. Every now and then, I'll still stroke his hair to reassure him that I'm there, but that's all it takes.
I was about to swear off the NCSS as a solution that didn't work after about 15-20 days, but the author wasn't kidding when she said it'd take time. For me, it took about a month for me to see any changes.
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