Sleep

Ahh, the August 12th post seems so so long ago. I can't believe I had a whole night's sleep just two and a half weeks ago. I think that rest was supposed to last me until now. We've been having a heck of a time with C's sleeping. We had to regress to the "Ferber Progressive Waiting Approach" last night. I thought my days of "timing the screaming and entering the room to console a screaming child without being able to pick her up" were over until my next child. How mean is that approach anyway? I mean you go in there, pat the child, tell them everything is OK, lay them down and leave again ONLY to have him/her start screaming louder than before you entered the room. 3 min, 5 min, 7 min, 9 min. That's really only all it took though. Once she was finally asleep she slept through until 6am, at which point I regressed once again and handed her a bottle in her crib and went back to bed. She downed it and quietly fell back to sleep until 8. The approach might not be the cuddliest, but it sure does work.

I do have to say I felt SO much better today having had a good night's rest. I was on the verge of death yesterday. When your sleep is messed with, you might as well cancel everything on the calendar for that day and stay in your PJs. I'm so miserable on those days, no one wants to see me, believe me.

I will say that little C was just as tired and mixed up as I was yesterday. In an attempt to get her to nap so I could nap - which wasn't happening yesterday - I fed her everything in the house that I thought she would eat. That did the trick. Could it be that I'm not feeding her enough and something triggers her brain the second that I put her in the crib? Anyway, I think this photo says it all. After a really big snack yesterday afternoon she went into her crib at 3:45pm and slept until 7pm. One would think that would have messed up last night's sleep, but it didn't.

We are going to start to try to train her to take the one big afternoon nap instead of playing this morning and afternoon guessing game with her sleeping. Plus, I'm going to bump up the caloric intake during meals and snacks to try and satisfy that little belly.

I cooked her scrambled eggs in butter - which is a total no-no for the way I would prepare eggs for myself. It smelled SOOOOOO good though! A came in from walking the dog and he was like, "Wow! That's what breakfast is supposed to smell like." If only I was able to eat like a fourteen month old. They have no idea how good they have it! Imagine someone preparing you delicious foods, bathing you in nice warm water and then saying all you have to do is go in your nice comfy bed and nap. Heaven...

Ahh..So close...

So night two of our hopefully new sleeping pattern didn't go over as I had planned. C went down at 8:45 and was out like a light in no time. The all so familiar sounds of her muttering and grunting were quickly heard at 4:15am. I let her fidget for about half an hour then I went in to change her diaper. I held strong to my new "no nighttime bottle" policy. Although she was not happy to see me quickly disappear into the dark night right after her diaper change, she was back asleep by 5:15. It was a little hard to hear her crying and stirring around in her crib, but I know it's best for all of us to give this a good, hard shot. I truly believe that I have fostered this nighttime waking by going in and being her source of comfort. I know she is able to self soothe, I just need to have the patience - when I am about to fall over tired and just want her to go back to sleep - to let her practice this skill.

So because she didn't have a bottle in the night NOR did she have one during the day - sippy straw cup all the way - that's two days in a row without a bottle! I think this could be it. I think I might have washed my last bottle until baby number 2 comes along. Wow, I really disliked washing those bottles. They have five parts to take apart and wash. I'm going to encourage a different, simpler version for my next child.

My husband's away at a conference for the weekend so I'll have to be strong and battle the nighttime cries alone. It's always easier to have someone else here to remind me that it's OK if she cries and she'll go back to sleep (eventually). I'm hoping by the time he's back she's sleeping through the night or just simply returning to sleep with a new diaper and not a bottle.

Wish her (and me) luck!!!

A Dream Come True

When I quickly awoke to my husband's alarm this morning at 6am, I thought something was terribly wrong. C hadn't woken up AT ALL last night. No whining, muttering, crying, wet diapers, need for milk - at say 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am - nothing. Complete silence. That doesn't mean that I didn't wake up on my own and have a spoonful of ice cream and a piece of bread at 12am, but that's besides the point. That's my own vice and I'm hoping to grow out of it (before it causes me to grow out of my clothes).

She actually slept all night! You may be thinking that she's like four months old or something, but at almost fourteen months old, she hasn't slept through the night in probably the last seven months. I've just resigned to the fact that my kid doesn't sleep. The other day at music class another mother and I watched as our children made googlie eyes at one another and ran the room looking for mischief. She asked, "Are you totally exhausted at night? Because I am." I answered with a "for sure" yes and also added that C didn't sleep well at night on top of being super active throughout the day. I've actually given up that it will even happen. I've managed to learn to function on fragmented sleep - minus the time I left the house door wide open, went out and forgot, came home to discover the open door, freaked out, called 911 and realized when the police arrived that it was just me and I forgot...but that's another post.

I should have known that she would sleep like a rock last night. After swim class we took C and Q for a walk and she was so, so tired. The good kind of tired where she just lays in her stroller, so calm and peaceful staring up at you and then the sky as her blinks get slower and slower and her eyes begin to droop right in front of you. That's the great kind of tired vs. the "screaming and kicking off of shoes tired" that happens when mommy's pushed the limit at Target.

She went down instantly when we got back from our walk and I didn't hear her until 6:45 this morning when her eyes popped open and she was ready to say, "Good morning WORLD!"

The best part about not waking in the night is that she didn't have to have the every so necessary BOTTLE to go back to sleep at 4:45, that's right, at fourteen months I still hand over a bottle full of warm milk at this God awful hour to get her to go back to sleep. Worst parenting mistake. It wasn't until she was like 9 months old that I read an article somewhere that after like 5 months they shouldn't need to eat in the night. I was all "WHHHAAATTTT???" I created a nighttime bottle monster because I didn't READ THE BOOKS.

I've been trying so hard to transition her to sippy cups instead of bottles, which has been quite the challenge I tell you. I finally found one, after seeing my friend's son with one. A munchkin soft straw cup, that she will actually use. I have this mental problem though. I won't consider her graduated from a bottle to a sippy cup until she will use the kind that has the traditional hard spout with three holes in it. You know, a sippy cup.

Anyway, it was such a milestone reached when I realized that she slept all night, was able to take her downstairs, warm some milk (she likes her drinks warm, sweet princess), put it in her "sippy" cup and have her drink it with her giant blue stuffed bear in the living room! What a great feeling!

Now I'm sure that this will not happen again tonight, but I will celebrate this accomplishment for the next fourteen hours and look forward to the next time it happens!