Chicken in Red, She lays an egg on your head

We have this reading video where there's all these songs that go with letters and stuff, and the one that talks about chickens laying eggs on your head also goes:

Sleep baby, sleep baby, sleep baby, sleep all night.


I started teaching my second baby to sleep by using the "eat-play-sleep" routine in Babywise. I'm not even going to link you to the book because I know some people really disagree with that book. Whatever. She slept throught the night at 8 weeks just like the book said she would. Never mind that around 6 months later she was waking again. I just blamed it on lack of routine. Baby #3 was very similar. So it didn't surprise me when number 4 did the same thing. But when she started waking up at night, things just got worse and worse. I've mentioned being tired before, haven't I? Lately I've just been bringing the baby into bed with me even though I don't really love co-sleeping. I wake up in the morning and I can't remember what time I nursed her last and then she started waking up and crawling all over the bed and frankly, I was scared she'd fall out. So yesterday morning after spending a very fitful night half asleep the whole time while the baby didn't sleep well either, I tearfully (because I get emotional when I'm tired) told Frugaldad that "Tonight is the night. Things have to change."

I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child a few months back and that book really makes sense. But every time I tried to just let Frugalbaby cry, I'd give up because I just couldn't let her cry! And I didn't want her to wake the other girls. And she went down fine for naps, it was just when it was dark, she thought she needed to be with me. All the time. Rock her to sleep, and sleep by her. It was getting old, and fast. But then not too long ago my friend Lena also read the book and tried it and her son is sleeping great now. Since it worked for her, and her baby was older than mine, and even more clingy (is that possible?) I had to try it too. So I put the other 2 girls in sleeping bags on my bedroom floor. I put the baby to bed at 6pm. She hadn't had a nap since waking up 2:30pm, so she went to sleep right away. She didn't wake until about 8 when I was putting the other girls to bed in my room. My plan was to not go to her unless I thought she could be hungry. She cried for a half an hour before I went in, checked to make sure she didn't have a messy diaper. I laid her down and told her it was bedtime and then let her cry until 9. Then I went in and nursed her and put her back to bed. She cried until 9:30 and then she fell asleep. Then she woke at 10 and only cried a few minutes before going back to sleep.

Lately she has been waking around midnight, when I feed her and put her back to bed until she wakes again at 1 or 2 or 3 and I bring her in to bed with me. Then she tosses and turns and nurses on and off until I finally drag myself out of bed to get the kids off to school. Because if I got up earlier she'd probably fall out of the bed.

Last night, however, she didn't wake around midnight like she normally does. She woke at 1:30. I nursed her and put her back in bed. She cried only a couple minutes, then went to sleep and then she slept until 7:45 am! I actually even went in to wake her so she'd be on her normal routine for the day.

So tonight we'll do it again and see how it goes. But I am very much looking forward to nights of uninterrupted sleep, and being able to get up without being so exhausted and not remembering what happened during the night, and getting up in the morning before her and not worrying that she might fall out of the bed, because she'll be in her crib. Asleep. Not crying.