The Quest for Sleep II: The Method

So we bought Dr Weissbluth's book "Health Sleep Habits, Happy Child". We heard it's famous and it works. The day I bought it, I didn't have the energy to read it, I was so tired and I knew I had to sleep because before long, Ally would be up again. Tragic right. But I forced myself to read or forever be slave to my baby's bad sleep habits.

And you know what, it became clear As new parents, Mark and I were the culprits of Alison's bad sleep. According to the book, the tenets of good night sleep and a happy alert baby are:

1. Regular Naps ( two a day for someone of Alison's age)
Well, we never enforced naptime for Ally, we just let her play till she was so tired she'd crash out anytime of the day, even if it was late evening. That of course wrecked her ability to sleep early for the night.

2. Early bedtime ( he recommends 6-8pm)
Oh my God, Ally's average sleep time is 1130pm! We are always bringing her out at night as we run our errands and visit family. I even remember one night, we brought her for a party at 8pm ( she's supposed to be in bed already!) and then gasp! to winebar for another gathering. She was the only freaking baby there at midnight. I thought we were so cool, now we know we were so wrong!

3. Learning how to fall asleep on their own
Basically, don't keep rushing to their side when they cry to soothe them, it only makes them dependent on you. They also get real smart and start acting up just to have the pleasure of your company. Well, that was clearly my downfall! By eight months, Ally was very in tuned to this pattern and worked it fully to her advantage! Anyway, the guru recommends extinction (letting the baby cry it out, gradual extinction( slowly increasing the amount of time you leave the baby alone to cry--- apparently not very effective as parents get inconsistent) and "no cry" ( basically do whatever to soothe baby everytime she cries... I had enough of this method!)

So, armed with this knowledge, we set out to enforce it!