SLEEP UPDATE

So you might remember this post from a few weeks ago where I was desperate to fix Elle's sleeping habits. She was waking at all hours of the night, not settling unless one of us slept in her room or sat outside of her door, sometimes not even under those circumstances.  Our entire family was miserable.

Let me tell you what I did.  I bought Moms on Call: The Toddler Years.

I follow Moms on Call on twitter and have seen a lot of people I follow conversing with them.  Lots of those same people sang the book's praises so after speaking with Laura Hunter, one of the author's of the books and a pediatric nurse to boot she recommended buying the book and then following up with her with any questions.  You can also set up a paid plan to have the Moms on Call "nurses" at your beckon call for phone conversations and for any and all questions you have. I thought I might need this after reading the book.  I was worried I would need a big pep talk.  More on that in a sec.

The book is great! Perfect for a busy mom who doesn't necessarily have a whole lot of time to jump into a whole long drawn out discipline book.  It covers sleeping, eating, discipline and some other things.  Basically it was exactly what I needed for Elle right now. The techniques are simple and familiar and after you read a short chapter on how to implement the technique then there are cheat sheets at the back that I actually printed out to have as a quick reference and for confirmation that I was following the right steps.  These "techniques" are not out there.  Most of them simply tell you how to follow your motherly instinct and toughen up a little for your child's sake.

For Elle and her bad sleeping habits.  It was all our fault pretty much.  We were the ones that initially showed her that certain behaviors result in us doing the things that I mentioned at the beginning of this post. We needed to take the reigns and show her that her antics weren't going to work anymore.  Taking the reigns was really simple thanks to the book.  A bedtime routine which we were already doing along with a sleep pep talk, (You are going to sleep great tonight.  You can do it!) a sound machine and then DO NOT GO BACK INTO THE ROOM FOR ANY REASON. The not going in the room was the hardest part.

The book warned that for stubborn toddlers this process could take up to two weeks.  I thought for sure that would be us.  The first night was rough, she cried off and on all night.  The second night, maybe cried twice and by the third night, slept through the night!!!

I even thought for sure that packing and moving would throw us into another sleep deprived whirl wind.  But now if she wakes and cries at night which she has done maybe twice since we started this whole process we don't go in there and she knows she needs to just go back to sleep.  Our entire family is feeling so much better!

The book has also helped me feel way more in control of discipline and how to start on the very long journey of raising a well behaved and polite little girl.

For my friends who have babies or are pregnant they also have a newborn, and baby books along with web seminars that you can purchase online.  I never used these with Elle but after the success we have had with this I will be using them for the next baby for sure!  Here is the website!

Moms On Call