Getting On A Schedule, Finally

A week and a half ago, I spoke with Tali's doctor about her sleeping problems and she gave me advice. First, she told me to push her feedings out to every four hours (I was doing every three or three and a half hours) so that she would stop grazing during her meals and be hungry enough to eat a full serving. At night, she told me to begin to let her cry it out, in 15 minute intervals. After 15 minutes has passed, go in, comfort her and then leave. Repeat the process every 15 minutes until she falls asleep. It's heartbreaking to hear your child cry, especially when they scream bloody murder like mine does, and I've had a hard time letting her do this in the past. But since I was so sleep deprived and simply at a loss, I decided to do it. 

Ten days later, I am happy to report that Tali is starting to sleep better. She now wakes up around midnight and screams for a while (anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour) then goes back to sleep. She wakes up again between 2:00 a.m. - 3:00 a.m. for a feeding. Once fed, she goes back to sleep and sleeps until about 7:00 a.m. I am hoping that she'll stop the midnight waking soon. It takes a long time to soothe her at that waking. The doctor says she'll learn that she's not getting fed at that time so will eventually stop putting out the effort. I can't wait.

Since I am putting her on a sleeping schedule, I figured it was time to put her on an eating/daytime schedule. Now she eats at 7:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. We've stuck to this schedule for ten days now and it's working very well. It's nice to be able to make plans in advance and know when I can be out and when I need to be home for a feeding. Finally, life is beginning to have some sort of routine.