Sleep Issues

We've been struggling with our DD's sleep all summer. It was like the perfect storm that swept in and stole our perfectly scheduled (all by herself, naturally, over time) baby. Between later sunsets, the heat, teething, vacations, milestones hitting at once (pulling to stand, crawling, furniture walking, a few words, standing, waving hi/bye, giving high fives)...her sleep went to sh*t. We got into some terrible habits and it wasn't going well for anyone. We're going back to work/daycare in 2.5 weeks, and I was feeling panicked that we weren't in a good place to start that routine again.

Today...after a nap-less day...I hit a wall. I called my DH home from work early and quickly put together an evening plan for the Ferber Method. I had a ball in my throat the whole time we went through the evening routine leading up to the moment we laid her in her crib.

Our evening routine went like this: bath, quiet bedroom play with lights off, bottle (DH gave it to her, she won't let me feed her bottles), tooth brushing, diaper change, I held her while DH read Goodnight Moon, then she got her wubbanub and lambie lovie and into the crib she went. 

We put her down at 8:00. My husband did checks at 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 8 minutes. After the 8 minute check, DD stopped crying. It took 26 minutes and she was sleeping. I honestly thought the extinction burst would take much, much longer especially given that I've halfheartedly tried to do this before and had quickly picked her up when I couldn't take it anymore.

Checks took 2 minutes and consisted of the following: gave her wubbanub, patted her back, sang one round of Twinkle TWinkle Little Star, and said, "Goodnight Finley, love you lady but it's time for bed." 

She cried so hard. I cried so hard. I took data to keep me focused. DH wanted me to leave the house and go for a drive, but I just couldn't.  

Anyway...just wanted to put this out there in the world. It's so hard. I feel like I've been noticing a lot of us with 7-8 month old babies are having a tough time with sleep right now. I never thought we'd do CIO (I'm much more of a "No Cry" method mama), but it was time for us to try this and it makes sense for right now. We'll see how the next few days go, especially with naps. Yikes.