where are you sleep?

Since the day my sweet princess was born she has slept well. As a nursing newborn she never ate every two hours. I always got 3-4 hour stretches, even at night between feedings. Shortly after bringing her home she began sleeping for 5-6 hours.. then the teething began. Bless her sweet heart. She never cut just one tooth at a time. It was either 2 at a time and sometimes 4! When the teething began it was like she went in reverse with her sleeping habits. She began waking multiple times throughout the night and since she really hasn't stopped teething since she began we are still struggling with sleeping at night. We began a night time routine when Allie was a newborn. She eats supper, takes a bath, nurses, we pray and sing Jesus Loves Me and then I rock her to sleep. Lately my sweet girl has not been sleeping well at all, even waking up at 3am WIDE AWAKE and will stay up until her nap time at 10! So something has to give because my Hubby and I are exhausted. We are very much against any form of the cry it out method. Allie is a very sensitive little lady and once upset can actually make herself sick. Self soothing really doesn't exist in our house and I am okay with that. I am a stay at home mommy and there is no reason for her to cry because she is awake, scared, hungry or just needing comfort.

I never put Allie on a schedule. I let her, even as a small infant, determine when she slept, ate and played. Because I let her do that she has put herself on a daily schedule. By watching her sleepy cues we have established that 10am and 2pm are nap times. I like that she was able to make these decisions and that I had the opportunity to be there for her all day. However we are going to begin something new tonight. 

At 5:30 we are going to eat supper. Around 6:00 we will sit in a dimly lit living room and let her watch a tv show in Disney. We will then take a candle lit bath, with lavender scented candles and quiet playing. We will get her dressed, brush her teeth, brush her hair and then go to her room. We will continue the rest of her night time routine. I am praying that this will ease her into a good, restful nights sleep.