The Hardest Thing I've Ever Had To Do

After many nights having troubles getting Adrianne to sleep and then having her wake up in the middle of the night and stay up for hours on end, we are starting a new sleep regiment tonight and it is NOT easy. I've been reading Sleeping Through The Night by Jodi Mindell, Ph.D and tonight we are putting her plan in to action. First, we figured out what her negative sleep associations were - it turns out we were doing everything wrong. We were letting her fall asleep with a bottle, while rocking her. So her comforts for sleep were food, rocking and most importantly, us. So tonight we came up with a bedtime routine where she can eat and rock with the lights on in her room, then we read a story, tell her good night and put her in her bed. This is when the screaming began. It was about 7:55 when we put her down and now, at 9:25 she finally fell asleep. She is sitting up in her bed hunched over Violet with her thumb in her mouth. If I could get a picture I would, it's pretty funny. We, of course, went in to comfort her every so often during the hour and a half, but we didn't pick her up, just rubbed her back and talked to her a little. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do - I hate listening to her cry (I mean scream) and she just doesn't cry very often at all, so when she does-it's bad! I know we'll have to do this several nights but hopefully it will pay off and she will be able to go to sleep on her own and start sleeping through the night (again!).