Sleep Training is no fun but the beach is :)

Well, we hit rock bottom with Esme as far as sleeping went.

She had been sleeping through the night (I've now learned that sleeping through the night for newborns is defined as 5 hours of sleep in a row). Then just before her four month immunizations she got a bit sick with a cold / tummy bug and sleeping became less consistent. Obviously her immunizations didn't help the situation, nor did our subsequent trip to Calgary for the July holiday weekend. 

We got home and were getting less than 40 minutes of sleep at a time  and she wanted to eat every two hours. She would sleep for an hour to an hour and a half at a go after feeding but for me, it translated to less than 40 minutes of sleep (if I could even get to sleep before she was up again). I've discovered it might be the '4 month regression'. 

Whatever you want to call it something needed to change. So we have started the process of training her to go to sleep by herself. No rocking, no walking, no soother... just her and her crib and sleep. Also, just one night feeding and only if she really needs it. Rough and very hard on me. But hopefully this will be good for us all in the long run. More sleep equals happier parents and happier baby.

Luckily sleep training is coinciding with Esme's total mastery of rolling from back to tummy and all the various combinations of that. She can flip over to her tummy and she prefers sleeping that way. We let her do it because we can't stop it and we just watch carefully on the monitor for breathing. Yesterday she managed to wedge her leg through the slats in the crib and then slept contentedly for a 3 hour nap. 

On the flip side, summer has finally hit the Okanagan. YAY! Esme had her first beach day yesterday. We just watched the people and she played with her cousin, Gray. No time in the water yet. We'll save that for when Alain can join us too.

Pictures to come! Time to get off the computer and go out in the sunshine with a cold drink since my baby is awake :)