We did it! We transitioned Tieghan OFF of her bottles. It was very difficult for all parties involved but she now successfully goes to sleep after a book, not a bottle!
Our Old Schedule: After dinner we would play for a bit, then it was bath/ brush our teeth, put our pajamas on, relax on the couch until she asked for her bottle. Start the bottle on the couch then continue the bottle in her room, once she finished the bottle we would put her in her crib awake and she’d fall asleep within 10 minutes.
Our NEW Big Girl Schedule: After dinner we play, then it’s time for bath/ brush our teeth, we put our pajamas on and head to the couch (basically the same as our previous schedule). Around 7:30 we start saying “are you ready to read your book”. Usually the answer is no but by the time 7:45 roles around we gently tell her it’s time for your books and we say bye bye to our show! Once in her room we turn on our Hatch Baby Rest sound machine and our C by GE Light on our phone. We sit in her chair and read 2-3 books. After that we turn off the C by GE Light and tell Tieghan its time to cuddle with mommy/daddy and then it’s night night. She cuddles up to us, we rock her for about 3 minutes, lay her down, put her blanket on her and she’s asleep within 10 minutes!
Guys, if you’ve followed me since T was born you know how tough she was/is. If you’re new over here, Tieghan breast fed every hour. Woke up every half hour and was the worst sleeper ever. We ended up sleep training her won’t he guidance of our doctor and it was THE BEST DECISION we’ve ever made. We were initially very against CIO but when you’re on the verge of a mental breakdown and can’t even have a conversation with your spouse you do anything you can to mend what isn’t working!
How did we do it: Cold Turkey. We took her bottle away and explained she’s a big girl now and needs a big girl bottle. Let’s be honest here, she now doesn’t drink ANY milk at all. Because she’s so damn stubborn she hates all cops unless there’s water in them. So we are still working on getting her to drink milk in the morning/ during the day. The first three nights were rough. I did have to go in there one night and calm her down and rock her. I did have to ninja transfer her one night and we did have to let her cry it out again. But we survived and she got the hang of it. And now it’s her new norm and she’s a freaking champ at it!
What’s in T’s “Smart Room”:
Hatch Baby Rest
Not only can you control this sound machine from your phone but it also has multiple colors for a night light at multiple different levels of brightness. You can also set timers for one sound to go off or a light to come on. For example, we plan on setting a timer for when Tieghan gets older in the mornings around 7am for the green light to switch on telling her it’s okay to get out of bed.
C by GE Light
We use this in her bookshelf lamp. This lamp goes on as we enter her room for our bed time routine, again controlling it from my phone. And I turn it off from my phone (love that I don’t have to get up) after we read our books so we can cuddle before bed.
WYZE Camera
A no frills camera that we use as a baby monitor. It’s small, affordable and the best picture quality we’ve seen.
Pros: you can travel with it and connect to any WiFi, it’s super small and light, best picture quality we’ve seen, can talk through the camera, it’s under $30, you have the capability of putting in an SD card and recording and you can access the camera from any device.
Cons: it has to be plugged in, it does not come with a monitor, you cannot move it from your phone.
Nest Temperature Sensor
Since our Nest Thermostat is in our hallway we needed a way to control the temperate of the house based on Tieghan’s room. This allows us to do just that.
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