Hi!
Last night I tried to move into the chair after her bedtimes songs, but she wouldn't let me even start them and was more upset then yesterday, she was very teary! I tried to reassure her from the chair, cuddling her from there and telling her I was right here and she could cuddle me whenever she wanted to. She still was very upset and I sat back in the bed as she was asking me to. Thinking back, I've realised that for some reason when she gets upset it's after we have read her stories and I start to sing her bedtime songs. Not sure why but perhaps she's anticipating me to leave afterwards and begins to feel anxious, not sure. So perhaps I should just skip that bit, the thing is sometimes she wants to sing the songs and other times she doesn't. I think I'll just ask her what she wants from now on and perhaps at this point it is not the best time to move to the chair. I have also tried starting the bedtime settling in the chair to read her books from there, but again she wants me to sit on the edge of the bed. Anyway once I had moved back to the bed I tried to sing the songs and she then got out of the bed. I could tell that this was just an impulse response and when I called her back she immediately got back in. I then just told her she needed to stay in her bed but could continue looking at her books until she was ready to sleep. I just wanted to make it really relaxed and low pressure. She did this without even trying to engage me and when she put the books down I said, why don't you try to see if you can sleep now. She did, asked me to cover her with the duvet and went to sleep very quickly. I was really pleased!!
This was here EASY yesterday:
WU 7:10
S 10:45 -11:15
BT 7:50 (asleep by 8:05!! - wow!!)
WU: 6:30
We gave her meds before bed and she slept for 10 hr 25 mins. There seems to be a pattern of this being the longest amount of sleep she can do at the moment. Will this change or just be something which hopefully will happen once we are ready to drop the nap? She has always only ever managed an 11 hr night and this hasn't happened, unless she has been ill for perhaps nearly a year!
So basically I'm so pleased with how far we have come. She is tired in the day but is managing. I definitely think that SA is in the mix so do want to take the sleep thing really slowly and at her pace. She has really struggled with teeth in the past and SA has been in the mix then too. She has been an independent sleeper since 6 months old but when she was teething her first set of molars and canines I used the pushchair to get her to sleep for bedtime, naps and night wakes as she could not settle on me to sleep back then and refused to lay down so I could not place a hand on her for extra comfort etc. My sister and husband could put her down for naps but she was hysterical with me. All of the APOP actually went on for probably 6 months, each tooth came up very slowly, one after the other and I didn't want to put us both through the ordeal of WI/WO any more than necessary. (Gosh, glad we are not back there, it was awful with many long night wakes)! Anyway once she had her teeth, I settled her with WI/WO and she was back to sleeping independently within 3 days with not too much distress at all, so guess it goes to show that like you said sometimes you've just got to do what needs to be done.
I think I may try the chair again but at a different point during the routine. The thing is I have never used it before and when and have done GW in the past, I have always sat on the floor, so I am wondering if perhaps it feels too new to her. Last night I was remembering reading somewhere that some mummies tell their little ones that they are leaving the room and will be back shortly, not sure how it works, do you? I was actually thinking that perhaps this would work better but at a point when she is ready and SA is not so prominent, guessing when all her teeth have come. I know you mentioned you were cuddling your little one to sleep for about 3 months, how did you manage to resolve that?
Thanks for your help, good to know you are here!! xx
