Sleep training Clara, Day 5

Here's the scoop from the last few days in the Blackburn house. . .

Disclaimer and run down of Day 1

Run down of Day 2

Run down of Day 3

Run down of Day 4

Which bring us to. . . 

Day #5: 9/8/12

• 7am - she wakes on her own so I go get her to start the day, followed by some playtime. 
• 8am - feeding
• 8:15am  - start winding her down for nap and plop her in bed by 8:20am
• 8:30am - 10:30am - nap #1 - she fusses for a few minutes and then she drifts off to sleep. NO CRYING! At 9am - wakes up and fusses for maybe three minutes. She then starts playing in her bed but by 9:20 she's back asleep w/ no more fussing. She wakes at 10:30 but is content playing in her bed for a good 20 minutes so I let her hang out for a bit.
• 10:50am - playtime
• 11:30 - 12pm - feeding (she takes a feeding at 11:30am, spits up four times, so give her more at 12pm, before we wind down for nap #2)
• 12:30pm - 3:30pm - nap #2 - she goes down very easily and just babbles herself to sleep! NO CRYING. 
• 3:30pm - feeding then we run some errands as a family 
• 4:45pm - she's getting tired so I give 2 more oz of milk and then plop her in bed by 5pm for a third nap. She is restless and by 5:30pm it is evident that she is not going to nap. Hmmm. In order to avoid her third nap being too late and thus requiring a later than desired bedtime, I decide to go get her and just start the process for bedtime and get her there by 6:15pm or so. Just to see what happens and praying this decision doesn't backfire on me. But. . . Weissbluth and others strongly suggest that the earlier the bedtime the better baby sleeps and the less night awakening baby will experience. We will see. . . 
• 5:40pm - go get her for bath, lotion, etc
• 6pm - feeding, she takes another 3.5 oz and by the end of the feeding she is wiped out
• 6:15pm - lay in crib, NO FUSSING OR CRYING, and she falls fast asleep. 
• The rest of the night I am scared to document on the internet for fear of forever receiving hate comments on this blog post. If a crying baby brings up feelings of anger in you, please stop reading and just know that we had a long, hard evening. If your good then. . .  
• 7:30pm - 12:30am - she wakes up and starts crying which by 8:15pm turns into screaming. At 9pm she is still screaming so I consult my amazing mommy friend on what to do. We decide I should go in now and feed, burp and check her diaper and then do not return. She eats a little over 4 oz at 9:15pm, burps and gets a fresh diaper (it wasn't dirty) and by 9:30pm she's back in her crib (she calmed the second I picked her up). She's calm for a little while longer, maybe 20 minutes, and then the screaming starts again. In full force. And doesn't stop. Worst feeling ever. Cue me sitting in my living room bawling on the couch wanting to call it quits. Because I feel like a neglectful mom. Maybe the cumulation of her crying over the past five days is finally starting to wear me down. At 11pm I let Ashlie know that she stopped screaming (yay!) and we come up with a game plan for the night. Well the screaming stopped for 10 minutes. And then it started again promptly at 11:10pm. At this point I can't even distract myself.  I wonder why we are taking huge leaps in the wrong direction, or so it seems. Screaming continues and her voice is getting more and more hoarse. I feel like I want to throw up. Finally, at 12:30am she surrenders to exhaustion. Y'all - that is 4 hours or so of crying with a 30 min break (feeding plus her calmness after feeding) I have no words. So much for her getting some good consolidated sleep at the front end of the night. Ugh. 
• 7am - she is still asleep, praise God, so I go in to get her to begin another day. Cuddle her like I have never cuddled her before. 

On a happier, less gut renching note, here are a few pics of my sweet baby fully enjoying her nap time

Positives from our day:

No crying at all at nap #1

No crying at all at nap #2

She is consistently going down easily for naps

She is adjusting to her new nap schedule quite well

No crying at all when put to bed 

Questions for those of you who did CIO. . . (I will also be consulting our pediatrician this week, but just trying to gather info from those who have gone before me.) 

1. Did you find that your baby made progress with one or the other, naps or bedtime, first? Or did your baby seem to catch on to both simultaneously?
2. For those of you with a post colicky baby, at what point did you wean baby from a night feeding? (I'm OK if Clara needs to eat in the night, my goal in all of this is not to avoid night feedings, but I do find that when I go in to feed her she completely wakes up and the scream sessions start again, or start from square one, soon after I leave the room). 
3. HSHHC says to pick one or two times you will go in at night to feed baby and then, regardless of crying, do not go back in. How did you decide the time(s) that you would intervene?
4. On nights like the one described above, did you allow your baby to sleep in a tad later than their regular wake time (say 7:30 or 8am, if wake time is usually 7am) to allow them to get in a bit more consolidated sleep? (I'm assuming no, to keep their biological clocks in synch & to keep naps on schedule, but just thought I would ask.)