There was one thing that she always teaches that caught our attention. The sleeping routine. Supernanny Jo is a strong advocate of children falling asleep BY THEMSELVES.
As you know, the family has shifted to sleeping in Ignatius' room. When it's bed time, we'll place him in his future bed to drink his milk, and turn off the lights and lie down next to him. 2 adults and 1 baby in one single sized bed. Ignatius will do his nightly gymnastics of tumbling and turning, and finally drop off to sleep after about 20mins to half hour. Yeah this is a bad routine. Not only does he become more and more reliant on his night time bottle, he doesn't get to brush his teeth! The perfect setting for teeth decay. Sigh...
We'll then transfer him to his cot and leave the room. We do sleep in the same room as him though. In the middle of the night, when he has night terrors, he wakes up and cries for Mommy. I then have to carry/pat him back to sleep. Sometimes, when he wakes but doesn't cry, I just leave him alone to drop off back to sleep himself.
So, is it time to cut the night-time strings? Daddy says YES. Mommy's ... hesitant.
Daddy:
1. According to What to Expect, babies in the later half of their first year should already be able to fall asleep by themselves.
2. Ignatius is old enough now to learn independence.
3. Ignatius is cognitive enough now to apply SuperNanny's bedtime methods.
Mommy:
1. Ignatius is still sleeping in his cot. He can't come out to look for us when he's frightened and can't drop off to sleep.
2. Ignatius still needs to sight us visually in the middle of the night to be reassured and drop off to sleep himself.
3. Ignatius might feel abandoned if we suddenly leave him by himself to fall asleep.
4. Ignatius is still young. He might not understand what we are trying to teach him.
5. Ignatius' still cannot communicate effectively to us his needs. If he's frightened or whatever, he can't let us know.
A tentative compromise that we've reached is that we'll take it step by step.
1. No more carrying of Ignatius when he wakes up in the middle of the night.
2. No more lying with him in the same bed while waiting for him to drop off to sleep.
3. No more sleeping in the same room as him, but turn the baby monitor volume up.
4. Transfer him to his future bed when he's proficient in climbing up and down in the dark and half asleep, and knows how to open doors without hurting his toes.
5. Letting him fall asleep by himself.
I dont' know how long this whole process will take...but Mommy is feeling the nighttime separation anxiety.
