Thank You, Sleep Gods!
Back in July, we Whomptons made a journey to Nashville, TN, and our sleep schedules have been a wreck since then. Add in other fun elements (Lola climbs out of the crib! Lola climbs over the baby gate! Lola has hysterical night terrors! Lola refuses to sleep past 4 a.m.!) and the result is a grumpy, sleep deprived set of parents. We survived a week of Lola and the crib mattress on the floor, but it was an unmitigated disaster because she didn't understand that the new physical set-up meant the same rules apply: baby in bed, stay in bed, go to sleep!
I did a fair amount of online research and turned to two tried-and-true books: The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. The second book, while better known, provided far fewer useful tips in regard to getting our kid to sleep. The author advocated 1) earlier bed time and 2) crying it out for as long as needed. That's not our style -- an earlier bedtime would mean no dinner, and we've tried crying it out without limit and Lola pushed well past 2 hours. So those strategies were a no-go for us. The No Cry Sleep Solution reminded us of the importance of routine, previewing the next few actions, light and other stimulation, and sleep. Neither book had strategies for the 4 a.m. early wake-up call, except to say that maybe that was the best time for Lola due to circadian rhythms and we should put her to bed even earlier! Yeah right.
So the Whomptons took drastic measures. We purchased a crib tent. Amazon was our marketplace and we happily paid the $50 for it. It arrived nine days ago, and we immediately reconstructed the crib and installed the crib tent. Lola enthusiastically returned to her crib and went right to sleep that night. Bless her.
We also contacted the St. Luke's Sleep Clinic and made an appointment with the pediatric sleep guru, Nancy Birkenmeier. We kept a sleep log for over a week and then met with Nancy for 2.5 hours as she made an action plan to eliminate Lola's nighttime wakings and to cease her early morning wakings as well. The disclaimer is hilarious: "DO NOT attempt to carry out this program without the planning and committment necessary. This is a difficult program and when instructions are not followed it can fail miserably." Awesome.
But Nancy Birkenmeier really is the sleep guru. She had a thoughtful response to every question and an action for every possible thing Lola might do. Krystal was appointed "bad news parent" and Eric was appointed "yay, it's time to get up!" parent and we've fulfilled our duties admirably. Krystal's job came with more responsibilities -- the time of night (either before or after 3:40 a.m.) dictates different responsibilities and those are, admittedly, hard to remember when I'm waking up at 3:40 in the morning but we're doing okay.
I'm here to claim partial success, even though that may tempt the fates. Lola no longer needs parental help to go back to sleep in the middle of the night AND she has only gotten up at 4 a.m. once in the past week! I cannot explain why Eric and I are still SO TIRED all the time, unless it's to account for the months of no-sleep we've experienced.
Lola is supposed to get somewhere between 12.75 and 14 hours of sleep each day. She was averaging 10.5-11 hours before this week, which certainly explains some biting behavior, but that was the only sign of insufficient sleep that she exhibited. Raina, on the other hand, demonstrates six of the seven "insufficient sleep" characteristics on a daily basis, so we've now started putting her to bed earlier as well.
The afternoon routine works like this: come home, dinner on table at 4:45 p.m., bath for Lola, bath for Raina, bedtime for both at 6:30, and then lots of quiet productivity for the adults. We're not really certain what to do with the free time we've returned to ourselves, but I'm sure we'll manage to think something up. Maybe we'll sleep!!!
I did a fair amount of online research and turned to two tried-and-true books: The No Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. The second book, while better known, provided far fewer useful tips in regard to getting our kid to sleep. The author advocated 1) earlier bed time and 2) crying it out for as long as needed. That's not our style -- an earlier bedtime would mean no dinner, and we've tried crying it out without limit and Lola pushed well past 2 hours. So those strategies were a no-go for us. The No Cry Sleep Solution reminded us of the importance of routine, previewing the next few actions, light and other stimulation, and sleep. Neither book had strategies for the 4 a.m. early wake-up call, except to say that maybe that was the best time for Lola due to circadian rhythms and we should put her to bed even earlier! Yeah right.
So the Whomptons took drastic measures. We purchased a crib tent. Amazon was our marketplace and we happily paid the $50 for it. It arrived nine days ago, and we immediately reconstructed the crib and installed the crib tent. Lola enthusiastically returned to her crib and went right to sleep that night. Bless her.
We also contacted the St. Luke's Sleep Clinic and made an appointment with the pediatric sleep guru, Nancy Birkenmeier. We kept a sleep log for over a week and then met with Nancy for 2.5 hours as she made an action plan to eliminate Lola's nighttime wakings and to cease her early morning wakings as well. The disclaimer is hilarious: "DO NOT attempt to carry out this program without the planning and committment necessary. This is a difficult program and when instructions are not followed it can fail miserably." Awesome.
But Nancy Birkenmeier really is the sleep guru. She had a thoughtful response to every question and an action for every possible thing Lola might do. Krystal was appointed "bad news parent" and Eric was appointed "yay, it's time to get up!" parent and we've fulfilled our duties admirably. Krystal's job came with more responsibilities -- the time of night (either before or after 3:40 a.m.) dictates different responsibilities and those are, admittedly, hard to remember when I'm waking up at 3:40 in the morning but we're doing okay.
I'm here to claim partial success, even though that may tempt the fates. Lola no longer needs parental help to go back to sleep in the middle of the night AND she has only gotten up at 4 a.m. once in the past week! I cannot explain why Eric and I are still SO TIRED all the time, unless it's to account for the months of no-sleep we've experienced.
Lola is supposed to get somewhere between 12.75 and 14 hours of sleep each day. She was averaging 10.5-11 hours before this week, which certainly explains some biting behavior, but that was the only sign of insufficient sleep that she exhibited. Raina, on the other hand, demonstrates six of the seven "insufficient sleep" characteristics on a daily basis, so we've now started putting her to bed earlier as well.
The afternoon routine works like this: come home, dinner on table at 4:45 p.m., bath for Lola, bath for Raina, bedtime for both at 6:30, and then lots of quiet productivity for the adults. We're not really certain what to do with the free time we've returned to ourselves, but I'm sure we'll manage to think something up. Maybe we'll sleep!!!
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