After a week-plus of Zoe’s sleep issues (first discussed here), Q and I decided to nip the problem in the bud. Adopting the “silent-return-to-sleep” approach advocated in one of our sleep books, we stopped trying to cuddle, rock or sing Zoe back to sleep when she got up in the middle of night. (This is what we did when she was little, but the approach no longer seemed effective.) Instead, when she entered our room, we simply scooped her up and returned her to her bed without a word. And we did this until she stayed in bed – no matter how many times it took. (“If you are not silent and you discuss getting out of bed with it is occurring, your social behavior reinfoces getting out of the bed,” the book advised.)

Zoe wasn’t initially fond of our new approach, of course, and the first night we tried it, she got out of her bed – and shed a fair amount of tears – a whopping 90 times before finally staying put. (Poor Q! He was the one escorting her back to bed each time.) This number got smaller and smaller as the week progressed, until finally she just slept through the night. (She hasn’t gotten up before 6 AM for the past three.) I’m not sure if this is the end of our sleep problems, but it’s a good feeling to have found something that works – at least for now.

-M

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 6:36 pm and is filed under 31.Two Years, 3 Months. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.