My dear daughter is just about 5 months old, and try as I might I cannot get her to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time.  Before you jump on me and say “Two hours! I’d love a two hour break during the day! What are you complaining about??”, I am not referring to nap time (the word has no meaning in my household!).  I am sure I am not alone when I complain that my dear little babe sleeps no more than two hours a time at night.

It hasn’t always been this way.  For a few weeks, she would nod off at about 10pm and wake when my husband got up for work at 5:30am.  After a quick feeding, she’d be back to sleep until about 7 and then we’d be up for the day. I mistakenly complained then that I wished she’d let me sleep in.  Now I wish she’d let me sleep at all!!  I don’t know what happened, but all of a sudden she was back to waking every two hours, and its been that way for about two months now.  Needless to say, I am absolutely exhausted.

When I complain to family and friends, the response nearly 90% of the time is, “Have you tried letting her cry it out?”  I cringe at the very thought.  The honest truth is, I have tried to let her “cry it out”.  When she was about 6 weeks old, I awoke one night to her cries and let out an audible sigh, which in turn woke my husband.  I began to cry myself – as a new parent and with no end in sight I did not see how I could carry on this way.  He suggested I let her cry and see if she would fall back asleep on her own.  In my sleep deprived state I did not disagree – maybe, just maybe, my family and friends were right. Maybe she would fall back asleep on her own and so could I.  I lay awake listening to her crying out into the blackness of her bedroom, pausing in between gasps as if straining to hear my footsteps, the sound of impending comfort.  After an hour of complete agony I could bear this no longer, and ran to her side.  Her face was soaked as tiny teardrops sprang from her clenched eyes.  I decided at that point that “crying it out” was not for us.

Every family is different, and I by no means am an expert or an experienced parent.  I do, however, know what is right for me and for my baby.  That being said, I can’t get by on two hour stretches of sleep!!  In search of a better way, I have been referred to the “No Cry Sleep Solution” by Elizabeth Pantley.  After reading through the first chapters, I am so far in agreement with the author and am eager to make this work for us!  The first step is to complete logs of naptimes, the pre-bedtime routine and the night wakings for a 24 hour period.  We’ll be starting tomorrow, and I will be blogging daily about our progress until we can both finally rest!

I’d love to hear from other parents who have tried this method, or had success with other techniques