So, if you have ever had a baby you know this is the one time in your life you obsess about sleep. “How many minutes was that nap?” “How many hours is a 9 month old supposed to sleep?” “What!? Awake already!” “I know you are tired but I had 3 hours of interrupt sleep!” Lately, this past week especially, Im over it. Over the getting up & being up with Sneaky B from 330am to 5am every night plus 2 nightly nursings. Over rocking (I know- bad to some of you) her for an hour to fall asleep just for a 30 minute “nap”. (I used quotes here because I was told that its not considered a nap if its not at least 45 minutes… yet another obsession). Over it all!

So today we start… sleep training.  Something we didn’t do with Kiddo, probably should have, but thats another day. For the past few days, in my non existent sleep stupor, I have been reading everything I could find on sleep training.  Wow there are a ton of theories out there on how to sleep train. Let them cry, dont you dare let them cry, just except the lack of sleep (not!), it goes on and on and on.

What is our plan..a little of it all. Nap time will now begin with a quick rocking, I just can’t not do this, with Bun bun (the stuffed bunny), then into the crib. Then I sit next to her crib with my hand inside so she knows I am here but I stay quite and let her cry and fall asleep.  Then as this works and the time of crying shortens (please let this be a short amount of days) I will sit farther away, and then out of the room. This is the plan as of now. We will see

And while I type one handed on my phone (love the wordpress app) this that’s what I’m doing; sitting on the floor in complete silence next to her crib with my hand through the slats of her crib.

So far Sneaky B is crying, but not nearly as forceful as usual when in her crib awake. (She is usually panicky…crying…screaming, I can’t handle hearing this at all.) She is reaching for my hand, aww, and I can tell she is starting to drift to sleep.

We will see if this works. Will I stay strong and let her cry and fall asleep by herself? I have too, I dont want to but I have to.  The goal is to get her to fall asleep within 15 minutes all by herself.  As in “Its time for naps” put her into bed and goodnight. Dreamy!!

Wait! Hold on a minute. ..holy hell its been 20 minutes and she is sound asleep! My hand is sound asleep too but so is Sneaky B!!! Okay don’t get to excited and contain the happy dance for when I get out of the nursery… I can’t even believe it, neither can Hubby or Kiddo!

While Sneaky B slept, we actually got to do some fun things around here. I started two projects that have been on the list for months, I will show you later. And Kiddo and Hubby got sneakily creative… later Kiddo said giggling “I can’t tell you what daddy and I where doing until tomorrow, but do you have anymore paint?” Must be a mother’s day something. After which they did this…

Can I just give a big shout out to my hubby… you are an awesome dad!

The other nap and bedtime went just the same, 20 minutes of crying and then sound asleep. I am hoping this isn’t a fluke, and that it’s the start of a great sleeping child that I have always longed for. Only time will tell.