When I asked Mandy what she would like me to write about, she pretty much gave me carte blanche, which was exciting and petrifying all at the same time.

I want to make sure I write about something you all, her readers, would like and keep it fun and entertaining as well.

So I thought I’d share with you the means by which my husband and I finally got our, then 13 month old daughter, to sleep through the night.

We were very blessed that our first born slept through the night at a mere 11 weeks old. She was on a great routine as she had spent two weeks in NICU after being born at 33 weeks and was combination- breast/bottle fed.

Our second child, downright refused a bottle, and exclusively nursed, and also refused SLEEP. This made for a zombie-like mama who had to take care of a newborn & toddler at the same time. I knew things needed to change.

With all the research I did, I realized that it wasn’t in anyone’s best interest for us to start “sleep training” until at least 6 months. Up until that point, I researched everything I could find on how to get my child to sleep through the night because she nursed every 3 hours all day/night until she was 6 months old.

So at six months we thought about the “cry-it out” method, there are many variations, but basically you allow the child to cry for certain periods of time and comfort at certain times to teach the child to self-soothe. This did not work for us at all- I couldn’t cope with letting Kelsey let out her blood curdling scream cry to soothe…it just didn’t make sense to me. I do realize this method does work for some people, just not me.

(images via google image)

Then I read more about the “no cry sleep solution”, which sounded more up my alley in terms of not letting her cry-it-out but rather comfort her at all costs until she falls asleep. Well, this method was fine until I realized that I completely created a comfort nurser, which meant that unless I physically nursed my child to sleep, she wouldn’t go to sleep.

(images via google images)

So, we were back to square one, and this time after countless trips to starbucks for sanity, I decided that I needed to take both forms of sleep training and blend them.

I took part of the cry-it-out method because I realized that she wasn’t always “crying” so much as “fussing” and I needed to differentiate that first, so I let her work through a few minutes until I noted the difference. Then I added the comforting techniques mentioned in the “no cry sleep solution”, with the exception of nursing her to fall asleep.

After months of going back and forth with both methods, eliminating patterns that didn’t work and trying new ones along the way, I finally got my 13 month old to sleep through the night….I know…about damn time right! Now, at 18 months, she can self soothe to sleep easily and effectively as long as she has a pacifier and her blankie.

I am happy to say that this has changed my life drastically and I just wanted to share my take with all of you, because I can relate to how challenging that first year can be- especially if it is a sleepless one!

Again, thank you Mandy, so much for having me- I hope that will help some of the mom-readers you have! I truly appreciate this opportunity!

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