Night 1
started routine at 7pm...bath, jammies, book, bed and laid DD down at 7:30. She cried until 9:30 and then was quiet.
DD woke up at 12:50 am and cried again until 2am. i went in when she first woke up and reassured her that we were still there. kissed her, hugged her (didn't pick her up) and said night night.
she slept from 2 until 4am and then was up but that time i didn't go in. she cried until 4:30 or 5 (she kept wimpering for awhile). and then stayed in bed until 8:30 this morning.
i laid her down for her nap at 11 when she asked for a "baba and night night". i let her have a cup with a couple ounces of milk and she was quiet at first with the cup but as soon as the milk ran out I heard, "all gone" over the monitor and she has been screaming ever since and asking for a "baba". it's about noon now.
i showered to try and get away from it and will put dinner on now (crock pot). i am going to TRY to take a nap since i didn't get much sleep last night either, but we'll see. My plan is to let her have some more milk (from a cup) at 1:30 if she still hasnt' slept, but i'm hoping to not have to go there...i only let her have the milk cause there is really no great reason why she can't have it during the day...
i'm so weary and tired and it's only the first day of sleep training! it's gonna be a long road...but I'm so proud of how DD has handled it so far.
a little background, she's almost 20mos. and has been dependent on a bottle to go to sleep since she was 9mos old and we moved her from our bed to the crib. she wakes up frequently in the night wanting another bottle so she hasn't "slept" through the night more than once every blue moon in her entire life. sometimes she's up as much as 4 times a night for another "baba". we're going cold turkey on the bottles cause i don't want to send her mixed messages about them. she's a big girl and she doesn't need them is the message i'm goign with. i'm posting this chronicle of our journey here because i don't think the sleep books portray this process accurately. and none of them really address the bottle dependency issue...i know none of us want to admit that we let our kids have bottles in their cribs because it's a big NO-NO, but i wanted to post our story here and come out to you all so that if someone else is struggling with the same situation, that they might be able to benefit from our experience....
send good vibes, thoughts, prayers, luck our way if you have them to spare! it's going to be a bumpy ride!!!