Well my first journal entry on self soothing took place on the 10th of June 2010, it is now the 25th of June 2010 and I believe that my journey has succeeded my daughter now sleeps through the night every night, The only exception to this is when either my partner or myself accidentally wake her when we go to bed.

She is having 2 naps a day usually and they can go for 10 minutes to and hour or two depending on the days activities. I am giving her 3 breast feeds a day, however I do try to get her to have a big breakfast and play before letting her have her first feed, so she usually has it around 11am, followed by a short nap.

When she wakes I try to get her to have a play while I cook her lunch, then let her eat until she looses interest, then she goes back to playing but I leave the food handy as she always comes around and asks for more to snack on. I try to keep her eating through the day and letting her explore as much as is safe for her to do so.

I will giver her a second feed around 3pm or a little later trying to stretch out the time in between feeds to make her day last longer but I have found any later than 5pm for her second feed can throw the rest of the night out of balance and possibly the next day and then the vicious cycle continues to spiral out of control and can only get worse if it isn’t stopped as soon as possible.

I then generally wait for her to wake up and then again let her play, read to her give her some snack food while I cook her dinner and then I feed her and try to make sure I get her to eat the bulk of her last meal for the day to help keep her satisfied through the night and I try to make this meal happen as soon as I can after she wakes up so that she doesn’t end up to exhausted and then refuse to have her solid meal.

I then let her wear herself out as much as I can and usually when she is starting to get sooky I will then get her into the bath I know that she loves having her bath and will fight to stay up that little bit longer so she can enjoy her time in the bath. I will sing to her and play games and stretch this time out as well until she decides she is done then we go into the bedroom and she is dressed for bed.

I will then give her the final breast feed for the day and every night she falls asleep during this feed and then I put her into bed and most night’s she doesn’t wake up at all through the night.

I can only comment on my experience’s with self soothing and I believe that it has had the best result for our family, my daughter sleeps well and is happy during the day she no longer spend hours crying if she wakes in the night, she may only cry for a tops of 5 minutes generally she has learned that night time is for sleeping and that we will not tolerate crying through the night or waking up and playing in the middle of the night.

My life has become easier because of our choice to try self soothing and I believe that it has worked perfectly I am now converted to this method and if I have more children in the future I can say that I will definitely use this method with them as well. No one deserves to be exhausted and feel helpless, let alone feel that way because your small child has realised you will do anything for them at any time and baby’s do understand emotional blackmail they have mastered it.

I love my daughter and now I have the energy to play with her and to cook her healthy meals and get the things I need done done . I am happy that this stage of our lives is over and has been such a success.