Sleeping Beautifully!!

Barb, thanks for asking about the sleeping issues! And I really hope that I don't completely jinx myself by bragging (like I had anything to do with this).

Maura now falls asleep all by herself.

How did we do it, you ask?? Umm, we didn't. Either Maura or our babysitter should take credit for this one.

For the last few weeks, I've just resolved myself to the fact that we will have to help Maura fall asleep. I've been rocking her, or dh helps her while she's in her crib. Once she's asleep, she stays asleep all night, and that's really the important thing as far as I'm concerned. And I have to admit, I like that quiet snuggly time as we rock together.

But this girl is stubborn. She does not go down without a fight! It's quite amusing, actually. I'll be rocking her, holding her in a cradle hold, and she will keep herself from falling asleep by keeping one of her body parts moving at all times. Usually it's her right arm. It'll be flailing everywhere. So I hold it down so that she's holding her lovey. Then her legs start kicking away. So I tighten my grip there. Then her little feet start wiggling. Quite funny, indeed. Eventually, she'll fall asleep. But it takes quite an effort, a lot of time, and a great delay of our (mine and dh's) dinner.

Last weekend, however, we went out for the evening and a babysitter stayed with Maura. Maura apparently wouldn't calm down for the baby sitter at all, so the babysitter had no choice really but to let her cry. (Our babysitter is a mom, too, and we have extensively discussed our sleep challenges with her. She let her cry it out with our wishes.) The babysitter said that she cried for 10-15 minutes or so, but then fell asleep on her own.

Last night, dh and I decided that we really needed to get back into the sleep training with our DD. We decided on a modified CIO, where we would go into to her at regular intervals to try to soothe her (without picking her up). So I gave Maura her bottle and we rocked a little while. I told her that I was going to put her in bed and that she was going to fall asleep on her own. I walked out of the room, jaw clenched, ready to hear the cries to start ramping up. Silence. Nothing. I went back in after 20 minutes of silence to find that my beautiful daughter rolled over, snuggled in with her lovey and fell sound asleep. She did the same thing tonight, so apparently it wasn't a fluke. Let's hope that this is a new habit.

I think that we may need to pay the babysitter more.

So here's my solution on sleep issues: Hire a babysitter to do CIO for you and go out and drink.