Please let this work

For about a month now Miss R has been waking up during the night. Every night. Multiple times a night. This has been quite difficult for us because she's been a through the night sleeper since she was about 3 months old.

We've tried everything. And I mean everything in our bag of tricks. Bottom patting. Teething drops. Gas drops. Motrin. Tylenol. Stopped all solids and started over. Switched cereals. Bought nighttime diapers. Layered her up with a onesie, pjs and sleep sack so she'd be warm. Held her. Rocked her. Shushed her. Put her in hear car seat. Put her in her bouncy. Played music. Played her ocean thingy. Played the mobile. You name it, we tried it.

It was to the point where she was so tired that nothing would calm her down and she'd just cry and cry. Then she'd cry to the point where she'd wake Miss C and we'd have two crying kids on our hands.

We are tired. Tired. Running on fumes. Our "nights off" aren't really nights off because we are trying to help each other.

The logical mind tells me it's possible we have the fallout of the "perfect storm" of recent illnesses...RSV, stomach virus, ear infection. That she isn't sleeping because she's gotten used to being up from all those illnesses. The tired mind thinks all kinds of crazy things and really just wants her to sleep so we can sleep.

Yesterday I took her to the doctor for a follow up from her recent ear infection. Thankfully she doesn't have an ear infection. AND the doctor told us to do the following...

- Introduce new white noise, like the radio.
- Go in one hour after she's fallen asleep and nudge her to "reset her sleep cycle".
- First night, if she wakes up wait 15 minutes, then go in and pat her bottom for 5 seconds and leave. Wait 30 minutes, repeat. Wait 60 minutes repeat. Wait 90 minutes and repeat.
- Second night, wait 30 minutes, then 60, then 90.
- Third night, wait 60, then 90.
- Fourth night, wait 90.
- The goal is to retrain her to sleep on her own.

We tried it last night. It was TORTURE to lay there for 30 minutes and then an hour but she fell asleep and I only had to pat her twice. Got a few hours of uninterrupted sleep and actually had to wake her up this morning.

I really hope this works again tonight. Cross your fingers.