Colorado, Snow and Sleep Training Babies
by oneluckydad
After spending a week in San Diego, CA, we flew to Denver, CO to spend a week with my brother and his family. On this leg of our travels we learned why sleep training babies is so important.
The flight to Denver was just 2 hours, and Freya was pretty good. My brother upgraded our tickets to first class, so it was our first time riding shotgun with a baby. It was awesome, but weird. We kept thinking that all the older people in first class were a bit annoyed that a family of three crashed their mimosa party.
Landing in Denver was a definite change in temperature coming from San Diego, but it Freya didn’t mind it. We went a little overboard on dressing her up the first day we ventured outside. It was about 40° Fahrenheit, so we put her in this massive snow suit that got her laughed at by a few people at the local grocery store. We thought she looked pretty darn cute.
Freya loved playing in the snow. She immediately sought out the icy white stuff as soon as we walked out the door the first day. Then she immediately found out that snow is freezing cold and hurt her hands after a minute or two… am I a jerk for letting her figure that out on her own? In my defense I had cozy mittens ready for when she found out.Every day was fairly cold, but the sun was out and it was beautiful. When the sun went down Freya and her cousins ran around the house, had dance parties, and played with the new puppy. Then bedtime came…
Sleep Training Babies
This is probably the best, yet hardest thing to do as a parent… and it’s especially hard on the mother. If you follow through it becomes a win-win for you and your baby. Before starting our travels we had started a good foundation for Freya’s nighttime sleeping, but it gets pretty tough if something interrupts the normal routine.We had researched many different methods for sleep training babies, and decided on a hybrid ‘cry it out’ method. When Freya woke up in the middle of the night this method consisted of:
- Wait 5 minutes, then enter her room to soothe her (rub her back or sing a song, just never pick her up, and no more than 2 minutes).
- If she was still crying after 2 minutes, leave the room.
- Wait 10 minutes, then enter her room to soothe her (again…never pick her up, and no more than 2 minutes).
- If she was still crying after 2 minutes, leave the room.
- Wait 15 minutes… you get the gist.
As with every parent and child, everyone is different. This method worked for us within 2 nights, and we never went over the 10 minute crying period. However, it could be totally different for other babies. The crying is hard, but you have to realize two things: 1) crying is your baby’s only means of communication, and they would rather be in comfort of your arms; and 2) as soon as your baby learns that you are not going to pick them up, they will begin to learn to link their sleep cycles together and sleep though the night.
Sleeping on the Road
Being on the road hasn’t provided for sleep utopia. Before we left Freya was sleeping through the night (usually 8pm to 6am, then right back to sleep until 7:30 or 8am). Since being on the road Freya has been waking up 1 to 2 times per night. She has been in the same room as us, so it’s harder to get her back to sleep because she knows we’re right there next to her. We also have to take into consideration that we’re in someone else’s house… ‘cry it out’ doesn’t really work for anyone in this situation. Sleep training babies on the road is hard. We’re still trying to figure it out as we go.
Good to hear that some people are still hesitant on trying out the “cry it out” method. Just remember there are no studies of the long term effect of the “cry it out” method.
Wish you all the best with the hybrid method!
The hybrid method that we used to sleep train Freya worked great for us. On just the 3rd night Freya slept through the night. For nearly 3 months after sleep training her she slept from 8pm to 8am with a quick wake up at 6am. Now that we’re traveling, we are finding it hard to get her to sleep through the night, and haven’t found a good solution. We’re working on it though!
http://blog.birthblessed.com/2011/10/ask-birthblessed-my-8-mo-old-wont-sleep.html
Just another point of view from a mom of adult children….