Sleep Training

I am using this blog to track Paiton's life, so I guess I'd better track all of it! Right now we are working on "sleep training" with Paiton. She has slept in bed with us since she was born. We tried the bassinet and pack & play, but neither worked. She was on medicine for reflux and had to sleep propped up. I was so paranoid that she would throw up and choke on it that she slept propped up in our bed. Then she got over the reflux, but stayed in bed with us. We love having her sleep with us. I know there is a huge debate about sleep training and everyone has an opinion. Well it worked for us for the pat 9 1/2 months really well but we have decided it's time to transition Paiton out of our bed! She is quite the mover while she sleeps and usually ends up on her tummy or sideways kicking Matt in the head! It is very hard for me to do this as I love snuggling with her and she is growing so fast I want all the time with her I can get. We decided to start with naps so she can get used to her crib and her room before we put her down there in the dark!
Our nap routine has always been that I hold her until she falls asleep, then I lay her in our bed where she sleeps for 1-2 hours. She is on a pretty good schedule. She gets up around 7:30, naps around 9-9:30, another nap around 1, sometimes another around 4, then bed at 7:30. But now we're going to have her start taking naps in her crib!
Yesterday she refused to take a morning nap and cried for hours until I had to pick her up because I had things I had to go do. I am trying the "cry it out" approach even though I am not sure I fully agree with it. I kind of feel like it's torture for her and me both. I am doing the modified version, where I go in after 5 minutes and comfort her, then 10, then 15, etc., until she falls asleep. Like I said, we started yesterday and she did not have a morning nap at all. For her afternoon nap she cried for exactly 60 minutes, then slept for 20. That was better than nothing. Here she is: falling asleep in her crib for the first time:

So all we got yesterday was one 20 minute nap. This morning it was time to try again. We did our normal morning thing, breakfast, play time, and then it was nap time. I nursed her and then held her like I always do until she was almost asleep. Then I laid her in her crib. She cried so 5 minutes later I went in and rubbed her head. She started to fall asleep so I kept at it for about 3 minutes and she was out. She slept for about 5 minutes, then woke up crying. I let her cry for 10 minutes, then rubbed her head for 5 and she is currently asleep so we'll see how long it lasts this time! Wish us luck on this endeavor - it is not a fun one!
So here she is sleeping this morning, her second time in her crib:
So cute, and of course has her alligator!
Here are a couple other pictures from yesterday:
Nana thought this was the cutest outfit she'd ever seen so I had to take a picture of it!
Paiton knows that she can reach down and share her snack with the dogs now. And the dogs love it!
Playing with Kotah's tail before bed. It's very soft!
Helping Mommy do laundry this morning!