Sleeping through

K is finally able to sleep through the night!

After being consistently denied milk twice nightly for one week and constantly being shouted at to “Go back to sleep!” each time he sits up on his bed in the wee hours of the morning. He has finally decided that there is really no point waking up in the middle of the night to be treated ‘cruelly’ by his unfeeling mother. Through the past 2 weeks, I have learnt that the best way to train a child to sleep through the night is to not give him any sort of attention at all. In other words, I have ignored all cries and complains and will comfort him only if he has been woken up from a nightmare.

The longest stretch of shut-eye that he has held so far this week is a full 11 hours! A real feat for someone barely 2 weeks ago would only sleep for 4-5 hours stretches at one time and wake up 2 to 3x at night. Our bedtime routine right after reading bedtime stories, singing some songs and saying a prayer, will be to arrange a ‘sleeping party’. His favorite soft toys will take turns to say goodnight to him, get a customary kiss and hug from him and would share the pillow with him. A hug and a kiss good night from me next and I will be out of his room! He has learnt to self-soothe, so he will then take another 15 – 30 minutes to sing himself to sleep.

Yeah! Sleep training efforts have finally paid off. The process has been painful for the last 3 weeks but the rewards are truly worthwhile

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