Sleep Training Day 2

Well, tonight wasn't bad, but it wasn't better than last night. We started the bedtime routine just after 6. Same routine as last night - I bathed with her, dried and lotioned her while singing songs, dressed and swaddled her, and fed her. Then I burped her and put her down at 7:00 on the dot.

She was quiet for a minute. Then she started crying - her somewhat mild cry. But she escalated faster than last night and was crying hysterically within a couple minutes. Shafi and I felt worse than last night. Not sure if the crying was worse or if it was because we were just watching TV while last night we were eating dinner and were thus more distracted. I had guessed that she'd cry 20 minutes tonight, but I was wrong.

She cried for exactly 30 minutes. When I checked on her at 7:30 she was moving her head and legs just a little bit but was quiet. And 5 minutes later when Shafi checked on her, she was sound asleep.

But on a more positive note, we had a good night last night and good day today. She slept until about 1:30 a.m. and then I fed her and had her back down in 15 minutes. Then she went until 5:40 a.m. At that point she thought it was morning, but I can't complain too much since she did a 4 hour stretch rather than being up every 2 hours. I played with her until 7:00 a.m. and then fed her and got her down for a nap. She didn't fuss to eat while I played with her, so I know it wouldn't be a problem to leave her in the crib until 7 without a feeding.

She was in a very good mood today. She took less frequent naps than she has been, but that also could have been because we were out and about most of the day so she was too interested in her surroundings to fuss too much. We had a nice brunch with some friends. And then after a nap at home, Leah and I went for a long walk. Shafi's back is still bothering him, so he stayed home. I put Leah and the stroller and we walked to Red Hook to the BWAC (Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition) art show - 2.2 miles away. It took just under an hour and she slept for about half of it. She woke up while we were there and seemed interested in looking at some of the bigger bolder paintings. Then we headed back, stopping at a bar on the way so that I could feed her and change her diaper and have a beer. She slept part of the way back and stayed asleep for a bit after we got home. And when she woke up around 5 she was quite happy.

So I guess sleep training is going well overall. I'll just cross my fingers that the next couple of nights the crying is shorter and by the end of the week she's just going right to sleep. We'll see!