An answered prayer for a sleepless child problem

 It's amazing how God cares so much about our daily life. I think I have forgotten this somehow and only realise again now. My baby is a crybaby from birth. She hardly sleeps , whether naps or night sleep and it has always been a struggle for us. Everywhere I read , and told, you can never spoil a baby. However I am getting conflicting advice. Some people told us not to rock her to sleep because it will create a habit, but others said it's alright, you won't spoil her. Which route did we take? well since we can't sleep train her yet, we chose to just go with the flow. This includes patting, rocking, bouncing, singing, walking, you name it, everything we do just to get her to sleep. Most days we spent hours just trying to put her to sleep. Slowly I feel depressed. My back and arm hurt so much from carrying her. some days I had to take Panadol because it was affecting my sleep. I even went to Acupuncture and Chiro to help with this. Thanks to my mother in law I was able to squeeze in some appointments.  I no longer have time for myself, I can't even sleep properly because I am always holding her even when I am on my bed. Both of us suffered from poor sleep because she hated the cot and we have to co-sleep with her. OF COURSE we are aware of the risk of SIDS and that is why we couldn't have deep sleep because we always worry. There were days where my husband or myself had to sleep next door just so that we can take turn getting a better sleep. you can imagine, after a while, sleep is the only thing that is on my mind. How can I get better sleep for everyone?

I read a lot of articles, watched different videos, read books (try to squeeze in some time of reading) about how to sleep train a baby. I even thought of enrolling us to sleep school once the time is right and yes I am very serious about it. However, I have always known that I cannot do this until 4 months old because all the books etc say she is not ready yet. I was so desperate that I cried out to the Lord to help me. I can't continue to function this way because I just feel so stressed about it . It is also affecting my relationship with her and she is not at fault. I must say that we have had some good nights where she slept 5-6 hrs stretches. However, the last few nights have been horrible. I feel like she has regressed. But how? she just turned 3 months , how can she regress already? I don't know but all I know is I am very frustrated. All day long I will talk about sleep with my husband, I think he probably thinks that I am a lunatic. 

Anyway, yesterday I decided to try sleep train her. it was an act of faith because I really don't know what the outcome will be and how to do it. during one of her naps, I decided to put her down on the cot awake  , doing everything that was suggested by the book : white noise, swaddle and dark room. It was hard because she was crying , but I did notice that she was not hysterical, she would cry and stop a lil bit to suck her hand. Now, I think sucking is her new way of self-soothing. I leave her to cry for 3 mins, then came back , picked her up , said some loving words and just repeat the word sleep. then I left again, came back after another 5 mins of crying and repeated the same action. surprisingly after that 2nd check in, she slowly cried less and less until I heard nothing.  I couldn't believe it! it was too good to be true. I thought it was a coincidence. The following nap I did the same thing again, although this time it took slightly longer for her to fall asleep, she fell asleep on her own. Wow, I couldn't believe it... she has never fell asleep on her own except one time during newborn, and now even sleeping on her cot. what's more incredible was that she slept for a good 1 hour ! the last 2 months she has been sleeping 15-20 mins max. This is new record. night time sleep took extra long though, it took 40 mins and I was very anxious thinking well this won't work, and when should I give in and just picked her up. Thankfully she slept after 40 mins, I felt so bad, but I told myself I would not let her cry for more than 1 hour. 

I truly thank God for His wisdom. I know 3 months is very early and probably a little bit controversial. However I felt like the spirit was guiding me, even with the swaddling, I used another type of swaddle that she hasn't used in ages because it didn't work. I don't even know why I did that but all I can say is that God is my helper. I don't know how long it will last, whether this is just one good day , but I'm just thankful for this and I want to celebrate any wins. 

All glory to God

Orenjigaru =)