Night Two

Night Two of Sleep Training:

Last night, Kayla actually went down with very little trouble. She seemed exhausted a little earlier than expected, so instead of starting our nighttime routine at 720, like we'd planned, we caved and started more around 645. By 730, Kayla was down for the count after only one brief crying episode and one brief comforting session from us. Last night it was my turn for battle, so I went to bed at 1000pm, prepared for a long long night. Instead, the night was amazingly painless. Kayla woke up multiple times, but only for brief periods of two to five minutes and each time she actually put herself back to sleep with no coaching from me. Only once, the whole night, did I have to get up and pat her and, again, that only lasted a minute before she sort of sighed and drifted back off. Now, she was up more than usual, probably once every few hours or so, but because her waking periods were so brief, there was no crying it out, no real sleep training...all just went so smoothly.

It scares me.

Why? Why would it be so easy only one night in? It seems too good to be true.

Today, Kayla woke up super happy and was right on schedule for everything - feeding, playtime...she was even in a good enough mood to agree to down some green beans (a new taste for her!) after completely rejecting any possibility of solid foods yesterday. And then it was naptime. She was tuckered out about 20mins earlier than anticipated, so I tried to extend her by reading her a book. Turns out, it is REALLY hard to read to a child who is screaming and squirming, so...we abandonned that idea and she went down for her nap. It took going in a few times to finally get her settled, but by then it was her real naptime, so it seemed like everything was going to work out perfectly.

Then the jackhammer started. That's right - jackhammer. Naturally, the building next door, which has been under construction for months, would finally be ready to have its foundation jackhammered just two days into our sleep training. Sure, why not? And so, over an hour of on-again, off-again sleep insanity ensued. Kayla would finally pass out, the jackhammer would start, Kayla would wake screaming, I would shush her, wait, shush her, wait, she would finally fall asleep, JACKHAMMMMMMMEEEERRRRRR. And so, this process went on and on until finally I was ready to give up, get Kayla up and head for Baby Yoga which, of course, is when Kayla finally passed out for good. There is absolutely no question that babies have some kind of mandatory activity radar. When you have somewhere you absolutely have to be, that is the one time that they will either take a longer nap, actually be ready for bed on time, or will decide actually they want to finish that whole bowl of cereal from which they normally only take a few bites. Oh, or that will be when they decide to take a monsterous poop that comes up and out the back of the diaper, covering them, their clothes and, oftentimes, an unprepared mama, just as you're on your way out the door. Babies are tricksy. They knows.

So now it is 2pm and Kayla is down for her second nap of the day. Thankfully, the jackhammering appears to have stopped momentarily and I'm just hoping they decide to extend their break through naptime. It only took 5 minutes to get Kayla down for this afternoon's nap, so I think she's exhausted. Just gotta hope that she manages to get in two hours or so now so that tonight is equally pleasant.

Keep those fingers crossed. It appears it may be working!