April 5. Mom: Overall, I am pleased with how “happy she appears to be, so it’s not quite apparent to me that her sleep schedule is negatively impacting her. Dad: From a selfish perspective, I kind of like that she goes to sleep late because I get to spend some good quality time with her after I get home from work.

April 8. Her bedtime has been much earlier the past week and the past two nights she seemed ready for bed by 8; I take responsibility for putting her down closer to 9. Dad is more willing to let her cry at night than mom.

April 9. We just don’t feel comfortable making such a dramatic change so quickly that would create stress for all of us given her recent improvement.

MW: No problem. Let’s go more slowly. How about trying to approximate my schedule and plan but modify it so you feel comfortable. For example, do check and console or graduated extinction instead of extinction? Some elements of my plan might be implemented now and others delayed. You choose.

April 9 & 10. Asleep at 7:30PM I wasn’t emotionally able to leave the house.

April 11. Asleep at 6:30PM Today, she went down for a nap without any soothing!

April 12. Dad: I followed your advice about making sure I get to bed earlier so I can spend more time with her in the morning. I did so last night, so I woke up at 6Am this morning, showered and got dressed, then by the time I went to her crib at 6:30 she was wide awake. So I used the next 45 minutes or so to just spend time with her, play with her and make her laugh (while mom slept)-it was such a joy!

April 14. Dad: I never thought we would get to the point so quickly where she would be sleeping for 11-12 hours straight on a consistent basis without a feeding. I found it more difficult than I thought I would to let her cry for an extended period of time before falling to sleep. I also feel that the process makes it more difficult to do things during the day because we had to start revolving our schedule around her nap schedule. But I still think it’s worth the inconvenience because we can see the results of our effort. Mom: Previously, I had made attempts to get her to bed earlier but I don’t think I was fully dedicated to the process. My day typically revolved around her feeding schedule, with naps being an afterthought. I am amazed how quickly we were able to turn around her night sleep and how she often goes down without a fuss for naps.

April 15. Mom: She is receiving more sleep and better quality sleep; we have established a routine during the day, and she is fussing less before naps and bedtime so she requires less soothing from me. I can’t believe that I actually have my nights back! I’m still amazed and in awe of the fact that my child is consistently going to be at 7 or before. The process has changed the way I plan my day and caused me to stay in the apartment when I would have been tempted to take her out; however, I am so happy about the sleep changes, that I am fine with planning our outings, appointments, and classes around her nap schedule. As my husband mentioned, the process has also put a dent into our social calendar, but we realize that this is what parenting is all about. In fact, we cancelled dinner plans last night, because we did not want her to fall asleep in a restaurant in her stroller. As you mentioned in your book, she can no longer be our little accessory that we tote everywhere. We were very much guilty of this, since so many of the places near our apartment are baby friendly. Despite our initial disagreements, my husband and I are getting along well and happy to spend alone time together.

Dad: She is now going to bed much earlier than she was 2-3 weeks ago, and she is consistently getting 3 naps a day. She appears to be more well-rested and gets to sleep more easily than she used to. She seems to be an even happier baby than she was before. I miss spending time with her at night after getting home from work and I miss giving her baths and having her join us for dinner, but I am getting used to a different routine now. I am now always the one to take her out of her crib in the morning, change her diaper, play with her for a little while, then hand her over to my wife to feed her. It has become special daddy-daughter time that I am learning to cherish. My wife and I are also really enjoying the time we get to spend with each other at night, especially cooking and eating dinner as a couple, and we now go to bed often at the same time, which hasn’t really happened since I went back to work after our daughter was born. One change we are still struggling with a bit is our ability to go out to dinner as a family at night. We now know this will be difficult going forward (if we want to get her to sleep by 7) unless we go a lot earlier, maybe 5pm or so.