One more hurdle crossed ...

For 4 months, it took us (most of the time Johan) a good 30 or 45 minutes to put Sera to bed at night. That included using a few tools like patting her to sleep, reading her a few books or even singing to her. Often times, he would end up falling asleep with her till the wee mornings. And since she got so used to him sleeping beside her, she would grumble or whine the minute he tried to leave the room. It gets worse because for 4 months, she would 'visit' us in the early mornings in our bedrooms, between 12am to 5am, expecting us to put her back to bed! Too tired to protest, we did this for many months ... telling ourselves it was just a phase. Oh, how accepting and silly we can be sometimes!!!

Anyway, it really got too much for both of us. Especially in the last few weeks, we were failing to convince ourselves that it was just another phase of Sera's. We were waking up feeling even more tired than we had been the night before. We were totally wasted ... and very, very desperate!

So when Manuela and Pablo (bless them, bless them ... bless them!) shared with us their technique that they called 'magic' and their 'salvation', we listened well and hard. We did everything they instructed, starting from buying a security gate for Sera's door. In our minds, we had a sinking feeling that she was sure to tear it down or climb over it. But we quickly brushed aside any negative thoughts and ploughed along, positively. So the method was really simple - a simple, unchanging goodnight 'script' before tucking her into bed, give her a cuddly, walk away and hope for the best! This also came with a timing sequence that informed us when to attend to her, during her cries and protests (which of course happened) till she finally fell asleep. The whole idea is that eventually, she would realise that her crying would come to naught, that she is big enough to sleep through the night, and best of all, she'd still see us in the morning.

First night, she cried for an hour with a few intervals, whereby Johan and I attended to her, as instructed. She woke up twice in the early morning. It was a little heartbreaking for me and mama was close to tears. Ha ha. So dramatic huh?

Second night, she cried for 45 minutes till she fell asleep and woke up once in the early morning. Improvement.

Third night, she cried for 5 minutes and fell asleep. She slept through the night. Huh???

Fourth night, she fell asleep with no tears or complains. She slept through the night. MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, Manuela said it took them 4 nights with Gaston but secretly, we thought it was nearly impossible to change Sera's sleeping habits so fast. But we were just blown away by the overnight change in Sera. Johan and I would just look at each other, in utter amazement. Our immediate thoughts were "WHY DIDN'T WE GET THIS METHOD FROM MANUELA SOONER?"

Ha ha!

It has been 6 nights since we implemented this sleeping technique. We love it, we want to shout to the whole world because we're just giddy with the success of it. We're going to seriously recommend that Manuela and Pablo conduct parenting seminars on it! We have crossed another little hurdle ... Yeahhh!

Johan reading to Sera a bedtime story before tucking her to bed ... no stress now!