How to make the best of waiting for the cure to begin?

[stjernemor]

We are so amazed!! This method is truly geniuos and a lifesaver...

This is the schedule we have chosen for or 8,5 months daughter:

19.30-7 : night
7.00: Breastfeeding and then breakfast
9.15-10: Nap (45 min)
10.30: Lunch
12.30-14.30: Nap (2 h)
14.30: Afternoon meal + breastfeeding
16.50-17.10: Nap (20 min)
18.00: Dinner, followed by bath
19.15: Top up followed by lots of laughing
19.30: Goodnight

As I wrote earlier the first nap on the first day was difficult, but then it seemed our clever baby got the idea. When it was time for the long nap at 12.30 I buffed her a minute or two till she was silent, and then I went out with the jingle. And there was nothing but silence!! I was so confused that I forgot the confirmation, because not in my wildest dreams would I have imagined it to be so easy. She slept till 13.40 = 1 h 20 min (which would be a really LONG nap in the past) , but since we're aiming for a 2 h nap, I just jingled and that frustrated her, so a lot of questions, but there were also periods of silence. I picked her up at 14.15.

At the late nap on the first day I just buffed her shortly and went out with the jingle. She protested a little but within 5 minutes she slept and she was one happy baby, when I picked her up 20 min. For the first time since she was an infant I was actually waking her up!! (She was very small, so we were told to wake her every 3rd hour to feed her).

Second night my husband was in charge of the bedding again. He buffed a few rounds, out with the jingle: silence. Confirmation 1 min later. She woke up at 21.50, where they had a litlle conversation going for 10 min. The she was silent, so he gave her a confirmation, which spurred another ten minutes of not so seriuos protests. But then she took care of THE REST OF THE NIGHT HERSELF \:D/ \:D/ \:D/
She did wake up three times, but none of them required interference. At 6.55 she woke up again and boy, did we have a party

Today has all in all been fairly easy with just one crisis requiring buffing for a few minutes. But its obvious that she gets the point.
Although we are tired still, we are so happy and proud of her. And I almost can't believe that I'm going to sleep from now on! AND tonight my husband and I will sleep in the same bed for the first time since she was born...

[Luvisen]

Oh stjernemor I am so happy for you and your family!

Absolutely gorgeous work! :-({|= :-({|= =D> =D>

/Luvisen

[stjernemor]

Hello again!

Things are working out great here. On her third night she slept from 19.15 till 6.55 all by herself =D> =D> =D>
The last two nights she has needed to ask questions around 23 pm (15-45 min), but no crisis. And then she has managed the rest of her nights by herself. She's turning into a happy healthy baby right before our eyes. Wonderful!!

However I think I might have made a mistake when I created her schedule...
Here it is:


19.30-7 : Night (11,5)
7.00: Breakfast and then breastfeeding
9.15-10: Nap (45 min)
10.30: Lunch
12.30-14.30: Nap (2 h)
14.30: Afternoon meal + breastfeeding
16.50-17.10: Nap (20 min)
18.00: Dinner, followed by bath
19.15: Top up followed by lots of laughing
19.30: Goodnight

The early and the late nap works really well. But it seems that she wakes up hungry from her midday nap around 14. We've waited till 14.15 to pick her up, but by then she's really crying, and obviously very hungry when we serve the food. We know its generally not 'allowed' to change the schedule so soon, but I feel very bad about it.
I was thinking of simply cutting down the nap from 2 h to 1,5 h. And then eat at 14.15 which would be 3 3/4 h after lunch and 3 3/4 h before dinner. She'll be 9 months soon, and the schedule would then make room for 14,05 h sleep.
What do you think?

Thanks in advance

[Luvisen]

I would tweak it like this:

19.30-7 : Night (11,5)
7.00: Breakfast and then breastfeeding
9.15-10: Nap (45 min)
10.30: Lunch
11.30-13.30: Nap (2 h)
13.30: Afternoon meal + breastfeeding
16.00-16.20: Nap (20 min)
17.00: Dinner, followed by bath
19.15: Top up followed by lots of laughing
19.30: Goodnight

So the meals follow the rythm of 3 hrs inbetween and still giving room for a lot of sleep. If she were to complain further on I would first remove the 20 min afternoon nap.

I am writing in a hurry so I apoogise for the short message...

Cheerio! /Luvisen

[Sarisparis]

Just popping in, amazed of your wonderful work! Applauds!

Another way to come around the early wake-up in the afternoon nap might be to give her a banana or something just before putting her down to sleep. As lunch is as early as 10.30 I think she gets hungry.
Keep up the good work, and thank you for a really nice 'story' to follow, stjernemor

[stjernemor]

Thank you both for the input! And for the compliments Sarisparis

Actually we decided to give the schedule a chance to settle. And guess what!!! The last two days we have had to wake her at 14.30 after her two hour nap
We are so happy happy happy
We have to pinch our self many times a day, because we just can't believe this is really happening...

Now she sleeps her 11,5 hours most nights, and more often than not we have to wake her in the morning. We've only had to jingle two mornings in the wolf-hours this last week, and she just needed it once every time to go back to sleep. This night our neighbour had a big, loud party next to her bedroom, and she just slept like a log
Now we're at day 8. She takes all her naps now without any protest at all (maybe just a little grumble when we leave the room). Ten minutes ago she fell asleep after a little cosy talk with herself I'm SO SO proud of her!!

We still have a few questions:

1) Up untill today we have still been giving her confirmations just before she falls asleep, because the jingle seldom has been 'the last' word. But now that she's not protesting anymore it seems the goal has been reached. So we should probably stop giving confirmations right?

2) How long should we wait before we start practicing sleeping naps in the carriage? It's NOT something she has done a lot earlier, but we would like to try to make it work, so we can start to get out a little more. We're not in any hurry though; don't wan't to risk messing things up again.

3) When we start with the carriage should the procedure then be the same as in the bed? Laughing + jingle? Any experience as to wether its best to start with the carriage moving or standing still?

Once again: We're so happy and relieved. We wan't to shout to the world how brilliant this method is

[chokladkaninen]

Dear Stjernemor,

I am glad to hear you're doing so well! :thumbsup: Just remember how exhausted you were the first time you wrote here....

As for your questions:
1) Yes, I think you can stop separate confirmations now. Only give one if she screams and then stops screaming. I have noted that if my children sometimes scream, they tend to calm down while I jingle - so then I just change my intonation so as to let the last part of the jingle become the confirmation. 8)

2) I'd wait with the stroller naps until the cure is formally over (today?). But when you do it, it is really just a question about attitude - she'll think it's alright if you do! If she can sleep on the belly in the stroller (many stollers are not that large...) you can let her take any nap there, but if she needs to be on her back it might be easier to start with a short nap.

3) Same procedure in the carriage as in the bed. :thumbsup: A rolling stroller helps her to get to sleep (so that's a little "cheating", as if you'd buff her) so I recommend you put her to bed in the carriage, let her sleep for ten minutes and then walk.

[stjernemor]

Thanks a lot for the answers Chokladkanin!

I have another question:

My husband and I interpret some of the GNS directions differently: Should a little light come through the ---- of the door or should it be completely dark in the childs room?

And another update:
I think our little girl had her relapse last night (night 14). She asked questions / was upset from shortly after I put her to bed at 19.30 until 21.00. It was the first time since we started the cure that she has cried for so long.

At first I gave her jingles 2-3 minutes apart, but that seemed to upset her even more (I think she was mostly angry) so I gradually made the intervals longer. But after 45 min. I decided to go in and buff her shortly, because she was completely 'out of reach'. The buffing quickly calmed her, and even though she started crying again the moment I stopped, she didn't reach the same level of frustration again before going to sleep at nine.
We haven't had to go in and buff since the first night and the first daytime-nap of the cure, but I feel it was the right decision, since it obviously helped her calm down a little.

After the buffing she alternated between (what I interpreted as) angry cries and being quiet (I think she was quite exhausted), so I didn't jingle a lot (every ten minutes or so) but instead I called my husband on the mobilephone and talked loud enough so she could hear my voice, and also played a little Mozart on the stereo.
The last 25 min I didn't jingle at all because the crying was winding down, so I didn't wan't to 'disturb' this process. When she was quiet a little longer than the usual pauses, I gave her a confirmation and there was no protest. The rest of the night we heard nothing more than a few whimpers.
Today she has been a little more tired than usual (because she missed the 1 1/2 hours sleep) but every bit as happy as usual these days.

We have been very fortunate that she has embraced the GNS so well. Three weeks ago yesterday evening would have been one of many 'bad nights', but nothing out of the ordinary. Yesterday I was reminded how exhausting and frustrating our life was before the cure. Just two weeks after we started the cure all three of us are regaining our strenght and are happier than we ever dared imagine we could be as a family

[TinasDag]

Hi,

Yesterday I was reminded how exhausting and frustrating our life was before the cure.

I know! Everytime whe have a "question & answer session" 8) at our house I'm completely wiped out afterwards... And I used to think that was the way it was supposed to be for 9,5 months until I met Anna and GNS at her home in Gastsjön Puts things in perspective, dosen't it? God bless GNS!

To answer your questions: Complete darkness works best. No impressions to disturb a baby sleeping

You handled everything perfectly yesterday :thumbsup:
Just like you said, sometimes the jingle is more of a disturbance than an aid... If I use it too frequently my daughter just gets pissed off (pardon my language...) and has an even harder time winding down. As you realized, music and talking usually does the trick better. As long as she's not unhappy/sad, just rely on domestic sounds (banging the dishes/vaccuming/music/talking). If she requires help, jingle first (just like you did), and if that doesn't help, go in, buff/fan until she's calm and give a happy/assertive jingle on your way out, one notch over her protest

You're a star! Keep up the good work,
Tina

[stjernemor]

Thanks TinasDag

I really appreciate all of you who have taken the time to read and answer me

Today she complained her way through all of the last nap (20 min.), boy was she mad at the end
But apart from this things are working out extremely well. There has been no more Q&A sessions since the incident described above. She often grumbles a bit before going to sleep, but it can't be to serious when she's able to go to sleep in 5 min or less

She's such a happy little girl now and her parents are so happy and relieved. This is how life should be with a baby \:D/

[TorsMamma]

Great job! You sure did the cure well!!! Good luck and ber careful with your wonderful sleep. Don't stop with the jingle!

[chokladkaninen]

...and if, in a week or so, you notice that she complains through the afternoon nap more often than not, you can skip it altogether. She finally gets enough sleep!

[Sarisparis]

It has been a pure pleasure to follow you, so thank you stjernemor! =D> =D>

I just read your first message again, it seems SO far away from where you are now. Enjoy!

And as TorsMamma said, don't stop with the jingle! It might come in handy further along the road.

[stjernemor]

I'm so grateful for all your kind words and support!

It turns out we still need a little help and some advice...

1) yesterday we went to pay a visit to my fathers apartment in order to practice nap-sleeping other places than at home. We decided to take the 'crib'-part from the carriage and put it on the floor in the bedroom, with a dark little 'curtain' hanging down from the top. The room was not as dark as her room at home usually is and it's not a room she's familiar with.
We only arrived 10 min. before nap-time, so there wasn't much time to 'settle in'. Did the laughing as we do at home, and then my husband put her down. She asked questions for 20 min. and he used the jingle. She fell asleep and slept 30 min, then she woke up and asked questions for 45 min., right until we could pick her up. During this session he also had to go in and reposition her and do a quick fanning, but it didn't calm her down much.
She fairly quickly settled down when we picked her up and the afternoon meal was served, but it seems she is more 'uneasy' with the bed/sleeping now. She objects almost before she hits the sheets, and tonight she was crying for almost an hour.

We would really, really like for her to be able to take naps in the carriage/at other peoples homes, so we can get out a little more, but we don't want to do it in a way that puts the results we have gotten so far at risk.
Some advice on what to do next would be very much appreciated.

Should we:
-put her in the carriage outside and use the 'vagning'-technique?
-take the 'crib'-part of the carriage up in the apartment and let her take naps in it in 'safe' surroundings?
-something completely different?
-Is it ok to buff/vagna considering that its a very new situation for her, or would that be a step back?

2) We are going to spend christmas with family in another part of the country. How do we best manage a car-ride that interferes with the schedule? The drive will probably take 2 - 2 1/2 h, but even if we finishes lunch exactly at 11 that only leaves 1,5 hours til the midday-nap. We do not own a car, so she isn't so used to driving...

Love to all of you

[TorsMamma]

Hi,

When my son was small he never slept in a “stroller” he always slept in his bed. So to be able to have him sleep anywhere I bought a “travel crib” that I had him sleep the long nap in and when we went away he was already confortable in this. I also took a black sheet that I put around the bed (sometimes over) So that way everything was dark and he could not see his surroundings. I used clothes pegs to pin it on the bed.

So my thought is that if you want her to sleep in the in the carriage on the floor I suggest you practice this at home first. Perhaps even have a nap like that everyday so that she is used to it.