Hadley's sleep update

I knew that when we got back from my sister's that we would be implementing a sleep training method.  I have been doing a lot of research and reading on the subject. I know everyone has a different opinion on the subject and I'm not even going to go there. What I believe is Hadley truly wasn't ready until now (maturity wise and just being capable of it). I also wanted to be sure she was getting enough to eat as I was about to cut her off at night. I felt that the sleep training wouldn't be successful unless I cut out feedings. Everything I read says they do not need food after 6 months of age at night and they would not starve (which of course is what I was worried about). It just got to the point that she was waking up sometimes every hour to eat. I would fight her so hard to just rock her to sleep and sometimes it would work sometimes it wouldn't Based on what has happened, I am fully convinced she was just eating because it was habit.

I also knew I didn't want to just leave her in there crying so I went with the Ferber method of sleep training. It's not full cry it out as it is "progressive waiting". Here's a quick summary on this blog if you're interested. I read the whole book which I absolutely recommend because he explains the reasoning behind a lot of sleep habits/patterns. I kept a journal on my phone of what went down and you won't believe it. I can hardly believe it. Let's just set this up as to what was happening the night before we started. She would wake up 3-4 times and I fed her once. The week before we started I was feeding her 2-3 times but I got her down to one so it wouldn't be so abrupt when I stopped. The week we were in NY she woke up every 30-60 min. I also rocked her for 30 minutes to put her to bed ASLEEP for naps and bedtime. With the new method, I put her down mostly awake but no rocking at all, just put down. I will also mention this is right around the time she started belly sleeping. I knew she'd be a belly sleeper, who wouldn't want to be! Plus she could safely do it and move her head so I was ok with it.

Here's my notes:

Night 1 sleep training
Bed put down 815
Screamed a couple min then pause for chill  then crying weakly  on and off
838
Crying a good bit, eating sleep sack
842 james went in to talk to her she continued screaming during most
Couple small cries until
853 asleep

Crying 1207
Me Reassure at 1212
She's still real pissed
1218 James went in
She's pissed
1229 stopped (was just about to go in)

256 cry
258 stop
Cried briefly around 310

Cried briefly 523
up around 7

Night 2
Put down 828
Awake barely and slept
230 cry
Went in after 5
She settled in after 5 min
Stirred cried around 630
Resettled but sorta awake cry
Up at 650

Night 3
Down 817 cried 3 sec
Up at 630

Nap 924
Up 1054
Freakin hour and half!! Whaaat

Down 115
Sleeping 122
158 up

Night 4Down 824
Tiny whining sleeping 826
408 crying pissed
Intermittent cry 411
Sleep 417
Up at 7

Nap 1
Down 924
Up  1042

Night 5
Down 820 drowsy no peep
Cried a random cry at 430
Up idk when but quietly playing at 711

Night 6
Down at 8
Cranky ate not well
Asleep 802
Up 655

Night 7
Sleep eating
Down sleeping 814
Up at 7
Cried out a couple times this morning

Night 8
Down 818 no fuss
Up 652

Night 9
Sleep eating down 815
Crying a good bit 1130 almost went in
Cried briefly another time
Up crying at 533 not looking like sleep so got her at 550

Night 10
down at 8:30 no peep until 540 fussed slept til 620ish and got her

To say this is a miracle of sleep is an understatement. I don't know why Hadley took to this so well but we can not be happier. She apparently wanted to fall asleep on her own and just needed me to let her do it. I tried a version of this a while ago and it did not go like this, so that's why I truly believe it wouldn't have worked until about now anyway. I still can't believe I just set her in and that's it. We have our nights back! We've watched several movies we've been meaning to watch! She even did a couple days of LONG naps! That's just unheard of. As of the past couple days though she's been getting up earlier and earlier, I don't know what that's about. I'm hoping to get back to the closer to 7 time frame. The long naps also have stopped, but I won't complain because she's sleeping all night! 

I was trying to stall a nap one day and I didn't realize she had just fell asleep, oops :)