Sleep training

Caroline has fallen into a few really bad sleep habits and we are in need of some sleep training. I HATE THIS! I typically am not one that likes to let my kids cry it out. Add to that the fact that Caroline is probably our last kid and she just loves to snuggle and you get a spoiled baby who stopped sleeping through the night. Really, I think she wakes up and just wants to snuggle. I go in and pop in the paci, rub her back, etc and she screams. The moment I pick her up she is calm and happy. In fact, she is usually bright eyed and ready to play. She has no desire to nurse so it is not that she is hungry. Sam or I will rock her to sleep (remember, we love the snuggles) and as soon as we set her in the crib, she starts to scream again. We hate to make her cry it out because we are softies, we hate crying and most importantly, we don't want to wake up Katherine.

So, what has our solution been? We have been bringing her to our bed to snuggle and sleep. I am neither here nor there are far as co-sleeping. I never set out to do it but I am not opposed to it either on occasion. I find that most people who co-sleep do so for the purpose of nursing and like I said, Caroline does not really nurse when she is sleeping with us, she is just snuggling.

But, we have decided that this must come to an end. We only have a queen size bed and by the time you slap on our bed rail it is probably more like a double. Caroline is getting bigger and well, it is just crowded. So last night Nana and Pops had Katherine for a sleep over so we could let Caroline cry without waking Katherine up. It was not a fun night. She slept until about 2:30 and then woke up and would not go back to sleep. We would watch her on the baby monitor and only go in after she had stood up and was stuck (new skill she learned last night). She woke up 3-4 times and cried for at least 30-60 minutes each time. Finally at 6:45 I did let her sleep with us. Both kids usually end up in our bed for early morning snuggles. This time Caroline slept until 9:45. So did I. That part was wonderful.

So, tonight is night 2 of trying to get her to put her self back to sleep in her own crib. Katherine is sleeping a mere 10 feet away so who knows how that will work out. Pray for us.