Play Cheat In Sleep Training

Here's an update on Trisha's sleeping training. I played cheat a bit. =p

Remember I mentioned that I want to train her to sleep on her own and we even got black curtains to help the process? The black curtains did help to reduce the time she spent roaming the cot before she decided she's tired and want to lie down.

Then we made some changes again recently.

I skipped her morning nap at 11am-12pm. Why? Because she needs me to carry/rock her for 30mins hour before she can fall asleep for 30mins. I find that wasting time and she doesn't really need it since she's sleeping 30mins only. Then for the afternoon nap at 3pm, I also have to carry/rock her to sleep but usually takes me 15mins to do so.

Just 2 weeks ago, after I skipped her morning nap, at 2 or 230pm, she immediately fell asleep on the bed, on her own with minimal patting and NO carrying or rocking at all. That's because she usually woke up at 8 or 830am and has been awake for 6 hours or so and she's tired out. I was so happy that she can do that on her own! =) Yippee! She will have about 1.5-2 hrs of afternoon nap now.

In the evening, we used to put her in bed at about 930pm and she will move about till 1030pm. Now, it's on the bed at 9pm and knocked out at about 930-945pm.

It has been like that for about 1+ week and she slept so much better during the night. In the past, I believe she slept too much in the day resulting in restless sleeps at night with pretty frequent wakings by early morning (5-6am) which require us to cuddle/rock her back to bed and it took us an hour at least to do so! Now, she slept from 930pm to 8-830am. =)

I'm so happy I played cheat by changing her sleeping times to get her to sleep on her own. I think it works and I believe as long as she gets the total amount of sleep required in a day (think it's 12-13hrs a day for her age), it's fine to remove her morning nap. In fact, another additional bonus is that we can bring her out the whole morning and do not have to bother about having to get her to a quiet place to have her morning nap. She can have more fun too and I do think she's enjoying it too! =)

So I guess we have conquered the "sleeping on her own" problem. =)

Next in line is getting her to chew her food. Sigh, that's another BIG challenge but I believe we can overcome it. I have started giving her raisins yesterday again and she surprised me that she actually chewed and swallowed it within a short time. This was so unlike 2-3 weeks ago when I gave her raisins. She put in her mouth for the longest time and chewed a bit and spit out in the end. I think I'm beginning to see some improvement so wish me luck!