Sleep Journey

So in the last post I mentioned my toddler sleep regression. I'll tell you about my journey from her being an infant to now. I'd like to share with you how we got here, because I am certainly NOT alone in this.

Fiona was not a "sleeper". She woke multiple times a night and I didn't know how to settle her. When she was 8 months old we came back from a visit to my husband's family in Ireland which was amazing. The problem is that her sleeping got worse. We are not a co-sleeping family, but she slept with us most of the time during this trip. We were both back to work but barely functioning on 2 hours of sleep because she was up most of the night.

I finally decided to talk to my best friend who lives across the world. So while it sucks that she is so far away, she was up and about her day while I was up in the middle of the night struggling. She has used the Ferber method with all of her kids. They are all champion sleepers. I was desperate so I decided to try it.

I modified the method because I just couldn't stand letting her cry even for a few minutes. It was hard. I finally figured out a combination of things that worked and at 14 months my daughter slept through the night on a regular basis.

When she turned 2, I wanted to switch her to a toddler bed, but everyone kept telling me not too. Apparently most have serious issues with sleep regression when switching out of the crib to a toddler bed. We made the decision to do it anyway. BEST. DECISION. EVER!! In 7 months we've only had 1 weeks of issues and it was when she wasn't feeling good and going through a growth spurt so I don't count that week.

There is hope if you are a sleep deprived mombie. Your baby can sleep through the night. Eventually they will. It just takes a bit of work and eventually you will get there. Now if I could just get her to stop waking up at 5 AM .....