Okay so after a whole week of racking my brain and torturing my child with sleep training, I have finally figured out a system that works for us. I can now say that I am not a Babywise Mom and Savannah is not a Babywise baby and that is totally okay with me. I decided that trying to make her fit on a strict schedule while I stay at home with her is just silly and not necessary. If she's hungry, then I'm going to feed her and if she's tired then I'll put her down for a nap.
The things we have changed that we're going to stick with are the sleep sack and the no nursing/rocking to sleep. If she happens to fall asleep at night when I'm putting her to bed, that's okay with me. She has learned to put herself to sleep during the training and that is wonderful. I'm wanting to cherish her being little sometimes since she is most likely our last baby, so occasionally rocking her to sleep is what I'm going to do.
Our nights have been SO much better. We've both been getting more sleep and it was much needed. I was really at my breaking point a day or two ago. She went from waking at least 3 times per night a week ago (and me feeding her each time) to only waking once to eat. If she wakes anymore than that time for me to feed her, then I don't go in to her I just wait for her to fall back asleep. It's working beautifully!
She is still only taking 45 minute naps in the morning and the past 2 days she's taken an hour and a half nap in the afternoon. I'm not pushing the issue. I do however, leave her in the bed for 10-15 minutes after she wakes up just so she knows that it's not quite time to get out of bed yet. My hope is that over the next few weeks she will get more comfortable and will start sleeping longer during her first 2 naps. I've changed a lot on her over the past week so I think considering all of that she is doing GREAT!
