Sleep "Bootcamp"

A friend inspired me to "take" Savannah to sleep bootcamp.

I was not real comfortable with this idea when we tried it back at 6 months old, but now at 8 months, I was ready! :)

We began bootcamp on Friday. After going to sleep at 9pm, Savannah woke up at 1am wanting a bottle. Well, we had spoken with her doctor, and she really does not need to eat through the night anymore unless she is underweight, which she isn't. So he said it was okay to break her of the bottle habit as long as it had been less than 8 hours since she had eaten. So we shut her door, shut our door, and buckled down for the long night. Every book I've read about this says that the child typically cries for about 20 minutes and then goes back to sleep. Well those kids have nothing on Savannah! :) She went strong (by strong I mean screaming as loud as she could) for 55 minutes before drifting back off to sleep. I knew that she didn't really need anything though, so I stayed strong and she slept until 8 am after that.

Night #2, Saturday, she woke up at 1:30am and we stuck by our bootcamp mindset. This time she cried off and on, in and out of sleep, for 20 minutes, and went back to sleep until 8:30am. Whew, that was much easier.

Night #3, She slept all night.

Night #4, She slept all night.

Night #5, She slept all night.

Night #6, She woke up at only 11:30pm! She fussed off and on for 10 minutes and then went back to sleep. Woke up again at 5:00am and talked to herself for 5 minutes, and then went back to sleep until 8:30am. I noticed her gums were red and swollen when she got up, so I'm thinking little teeth are messing with our bootcamp success.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes from here... I'm not sure if it was the teething or what last night, but it is still going pretty well considering she only fussed a little and went back to sleep and I did not have to get up with her.

Her naps are going fairly well too. We've said goodbye to those pesky 30-minute naps and she is now taking two 1-2 hour naps! Yay!

Sleep bootcamp seems to be working out for us!

And who wouldn't want to wake up to this smiling face in the mornings?! (Yes, she has pulled the bumper down and has her hand on her hamper...what a kid!)