Sleep Experiment #1

1st time parents. Every child is different. So many method of parenting. What's right for our family? Here is our experiment...

Background: Naomi wakes up 3-4 times a night. Most of the time if she is held or touched, she can go back to sleep relative quickly. Well, but that still require one of us (mostly Eunice...) to get up. It will be great if we can find a way to help "train" Naomi sleep through the night.

Method: We decided to try the Reassurance Tapering Method (named by Jeremy). The method (suggested by Eunice), basically involves letting Naomi cry for 5 min before one of us goes into the room to reassure her that we are still there. The next time she cries, we wait for 10 min before going in; then 15 min, then 20 min. so on, until she can fall asleep on her own without us having to go in. The idea is the middle of the ground approach between leaving her cry to sleep and us going in immediately comfort her to sleep.

Result: Naomi went to bed, woke up, cried. We waited 5 min, 10 min, 15 min each time... but because she was not immediately comforted she kind of worked herself up by all that crying so subsequently she didn't sleep well. Normally after she falls back to sleep she wouldn't wake up until 2-3 hours later. But the night of the experiment, she would wake up 30-60 min later. We terminated the experiment after 15 min...out of exhaustion.

Conclusion: While the Reassurance Tapering Method has been tried successfully with other families, it is not suitable for this particular case. Other methods need to be explored if a good night of uninterupted sleep is still desired.