The first thing we got was a Zippity Zip sleep sack. My mom saw it on Shark Tank, and said the sharks ate it up. According to the reviews on the site, it's a must have product and solves all sleep troubles. The basic premise is that it's a sleep sack, but it allows for less movement, particularly when babies startle in their sleep. Vivian's sleep trouble started when we moved her to the crib and she started rolling, so it made sense that she was probably waking herself up with her movements in her sleep.
We got our Zippity Zip and instantly Vivian's sleep pattern increased to a five hour chunk of time, and then quickly to a seven hour chunk. This was an amazing increase from the 2-3 hours we were getting. We then feel into a routine where she was waking at two am. Around this time my mom also got me a great book: How to Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber. Even if your child doesn't have "sleep problems", I seriously recommend getting this book. It's very interesting to understand how a baby sleeps and the patterns of sleep they go through. Evelyn was a good sleeper, but I still would have done things differently with her had I read this book when she was a baby.
There was a section of the book specifically for babies with pacifiers. And I know it sounds so stupidly simple, but basically the book said it was time to get rid of the pacifier. By nine months most babies have outgrown the benefits of using the pacifier by the baby's ability to move around on their own. And with one kid who's still hooked on her paci, I was okay with pulling the plug, especially if it meant we were going to get longer stretches of sleep time. It took a few nights, but eventually she got over the pacifier and was suddenly sleeping until 4:30 or 5:00, when she would wake for a feeding.
Reading the book I also recognized that it was time to change some of Evelyn's sleep habits. It was time to cut her nap significantly. She would still go three hours if we let her, but she was up until 10:30, or would go to sleep but wake up at three am and not be able to fall back asleep. We played around with no nap at all, but she was intolerable by about five in the afternoon. We learned through trial and error that about an hour was the right nap, and still have a bedtime of around 8:00. I also need to make sure to wake her up by 8:00.
Even though things are getting better, we continue to have some trouble with Vivian's sleep. She cries for about 15-20 minutes every time it's time for sleep - both naps and night time. It's hard to deal with, but there's really nothing to do about it because she has to go to bed! I really think she just falls into the "light sleeper" category. It kills me because I can't check on her at night like I love to do because it almost always causes her to wake up, sit up, and start crying. I dealt with the early wake up and feeding for a while, but she started getting up earlier, and was not really eating. Add to the waking up early the fact that sleep and I aren't always on the same page, and I have trouble going back to sleep after that wake up call. I decided it was time to sleep train that wake up out of our nights, but we also happened to put her to bed much later the other night, and she suddenly slept until 6:00. So that's where we currently stand! Vivian's bedtime has been moved back, and now the girls have bedtimes a little closer to each other, which actually makes life a little easier.
And maybe, as I start to gain back some sleep, I'll have more energy for things like blogging! :)
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