Each to his own when it comes to parenting styles and sleep training but this is just funny...

From babies to other babies.

OK, here's my situation. My Mommy has had me for almost 7 months. The first few months were great--I cried, she picked me up and fed me, anytime, day or night. Then something happened. Over the last few weeks, she has been trying to STTN (sleep thru the night). At first, I thought it was just a phase, but it is only getting worse. I've talked to other babies, and it seems like it's pretty common after Mommies have had us for around 6 months. Here's the thing: these Mommies don't really need to sleep. It's just a habit. Many of them have had some 30 years to sleep--they just don't need it anymore. So I am implementing a plan. I call it the Crybaby Shuffle. It goes like this: Night 1--cry every 3 hours until you get fed. I know, it's hard. It's hard to see your Mommy upset over your crying. Just keep reminding yourself, it's for her own good.

Night 2--cry every 2 hours until you get fed.

Night 3--every hour.

Most Mommies will start to respond more quickly after about 3 nights. Some Mommies are more alert, and may resist the change longer. These Mommies may stand in your doorway for hours, shhhh-ing. Don't give in. I cannot stress this enough: CONSISTENCY IS KEY!! If you let her STTN (sleep through the night), just once, she will expect it every night. I KNOW IT'S HARD! But she really does not need the sleep, she is just resisting the change. If you have an especially alert Mommy, you can stop crying for about 10 minutes, just long enough for her to go back to bed and start to fall asleep. Then cry again. It WILL eventually work. My Mommy once stayed awake for 10 hours straight, so I know she can do it.

Last night, I cried every hour. You just have to decide to stick to it and just go for it. BE CONSISTENT! I cried for any reason I could come up with.My sleep sack tickled my foot. I felt a wrinkle under the sheet. My mobile made a shadow on the wall. I burped, and it tasted like pears. I hadn't eaten pears since lunch, what's up with that? The cat said "meow". I should know. My Mommy reminds me of this about 20 times a day. LOL. Once I cried just because I liked how it sounded when it echoed on the monitor in the other room. Too hot, too cold, just right--doesn't matter! Keep crying!! It took awhile, but it worked. She fed me at 4am. Tomorrow night, my goal is 3:30am. You need to slowly shorten the interval between feedings in order to reset your Mommies' internal clocks.

P.S. Don't let those rubber things fool you, no matter how long you suck on them, no milk will come out. Trust me

Lesson learned...

So, I started out being an overly prepared mom with a diaper bag overflowing with everything we could possibly need. That got old real quick and I started getting rid of things when I realized I could never find anything because there was so much crap in the bag!

We decided to get out of the house and spend some time walking in a local park. We loaded up the dogs, baby and diaper bag in the car. When we got there, we decided we didn't need the diaper bag (even though we were taking the stroller) and set out. We had all we needed (we thought) diapers, wipes, warm blanket, cool blanket, bottle, pacifier. What more could we need, right?

So about a mile into our walk, Kaylee started to fuss so we fed her, burped her and then "heard" that we needed to change her. Let's just say her outfit could not be salvaged and we were stranded without any clothes!

It was much too cold to leave her in just a diaper, so we made her a baby toga, of course!

When we finally made it back to the car, we found that the diaper bag contained 6 pairs of socks and 3 jackets. No clothes. We had NO clothes in the diaper bag! Baby girl had to go home in a hoodie and a pair of socks. Poor girl!

Needless to say, the diaper bag has been "refilled" and we will not have another episode like today!