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SLEEP => General Sleep Issues => Topic started by: Wendy~ on January 27, 2005, 20:08:06 pm
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PU/PD Survival Strategies ~ How NOT to give up
As the saying goes, "Don't give up before the miracle." Here are some survival techniques that might help you stay the course.
** Think your plan through before starting. PU/PD is very stressful for one parent to do alone. It's darn hard! Especially if you know your own temperament and fear that ther's going to be a point where you won't be able to stand it, do not attempt this on your own. Do it with someone. Even if you don't have a partner, a parent, or a best friend you can team up with, at least invite someone over for moral support. The person doesn't necessarily have to do anything with your child. It will be helpful for you just to have someone there for you, allowing you to complain about how hard it is, and reminding you that you're doing this to help your child sleep and to restore calm to your household.
** Start PU/PD on a Friday, so that you have the weekend and are more likely to secure the above-mentioned help from Dad or Grandma or a good friend.
** Use ear plugs when you're in the room with the child. I don't tell you this to suggest that you should ignore the child, only to deaden the sound of her crying a bit, so it's less likely to grate on your ears.
** Don't feel sorry for your child. You're doing PU/PD to help her become an independent sleeper, which is a great gift.
** If you're tempted to quit, ask yourself, What will the situation be if I cave in? If your child cries for forty minutes and you give up and go back to whatever old habit of soothing you adopted so many months ago, you've made your child have a miserable forty minutes for nothing! You're right back to where you were before you started, she is no better equipped to soothe herself, and you feel like a failure.
From The Babywhisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg and Melinda Blau, Chapter 6: Pick Up/Put Down, the section entitled, "P.U./P.D.Survival Strategies" (the last page of the chapter).