After weeks of nursing Camille into a sound slumber and then gingerly removing myself from her presence, I am shocked by the recent sleep developments. Yes, you know the familiar story: parent waits for signs of deep enough sleep, puts baby into crib and holds breath that the transfer did not wake baby. Usually in our world, if the transfer was successful, it wouldn't be after about 10 minutes when Camille discovered that the soothing warm body of mom or dad was gone. I knew that eventually I'd just have to let her "cry" if we ever hoped to break this cycle of dependence. I dread that day.
To my suprise, twice this week, while Joe was out of town, my parental reserves were taxed and out of survival, I resorted to some new tactics. Tuesday evening, I was trying to get her to sleep when Nathan needed my night time attention too. I put Camille (11 weeks) down in her dark room and said, "I'll be back soon. Night Night." To my complete shock, I was able to spend a few minutes with Nathan, and never heard her crying for me. Before interfering, I went downstairs to make lunches, figuring that she'd "call if she needed me". She never called. When I checked on her, I found a beautifully sleeping baby!!! Last night was a similar story, I was getting tired, and after feeding her it didn't appear that she was ready for bed just yet. So, I put her in her crib and went to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. She was still quiet. So, I climbed into bed and figured, "she'll call if she needs me." That call never came until 4 am!!!
Christmas 2014
11 years ago
1 comment:
Beautiful! I say, bag the feeding-to-sleep technique. It sounds like Camille prefers to fall asleep by herself in a quiet room. Maybe you'll be able to avoid the crying-it-out stage all together!
Later, you'll be able to tell her she was your favorite baby (that's what I tell Adam all the time, and at 9 he puffs up with pride over his baby-sleeping habits).
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