Night #4

She went to sleep at 6:30pm....woke BRIEFLY at 3am. Did her whole fuss, fall asleep, fuss, fall asleep thing for ONLY 15 minutes and didn't wake again until 6am!!! I'm sold! This really works!

I'm convinced that soon she won't even wake at all and I'll be a fully rested momma...I'll be a new woman!!!

I'm just wondering how it's going to go this weekend. Jason is going away on an extended fishing trip with a buddy of his, so I'm going "back home" and staying with my mom and visiting friends. I wonder if the trend will continue or not. When she's sleeping in our room she usually wakes up when we go in to go to bed....and when I'm at someone else's house and she wakes up I always feel like I need to just quick nurse her and put her back to bed so she doesn't wake anyone else....so we'll see!

7 Months Old & Night #3

She went to sleep at 6:30pm. Woke up at 2am. Did the whole fuss a little, fall asleep, fuss a little, fall asleep thing for about 40 minutes. Then slept until 5am. I thought it was amazing that she had gone for 10 1/2 hours so I nursed her at 5am and then she went back to sleep until 8am. I think that's fabulous!

Also, She is 7 months old today! As of this week she has added carrots to diet and loves them. She still LOVES reading! She is practicing her "standing" on the couch these days. She doesn't pull herself up, we put her there and this only lasts a few seconds but she loves it!She has mastered rolling over from back to belly now too. Actually, she has mastered the roll in general and now does continuous rolls to get where she wants to go. Haven't gotten that one on tape yet. And apparently she loves playing peekaboo with ANY prop available! :)

Too Good to be True! (?)

Night #2 with "cry it out" method...SHE SLEPT THROUGH BOTH NIGHT TIME FEEDINGS! This has to be too good to be true. Oh wait...yup it was....because our cat woke her up at 4am! The little babushca drifted off at 7pm and didn't wake up until we heard our stupid cat pry her door open and go in there and start meowing like bloody murder because he thinks he's starving...even though he was fed before we went to bed! The cat shall now die. JUST KIDDING! But the cat SHALL spend the night in the basement from now on.

In other news. Yesterday was glorious and sunny. The babe, Hunter and I went and explored an old railroad that's been converted into a nice trail. Then we strolled it right over to the park where Ella had her first push in a real swing (you know, the baby kind). I wish I had the camera. Her mouth was wide open with huge smiles and face all scrunched up with excitement. Then I took her down the slide with me. She loved that too.

And today I'm making good use of a rainy day. Women's Bible study in the morning, which Ella thankfully napped through most of. And now making a few loaves of bread, and chopping up fixins for a salad to go with the homemade pot pie.

I'll let you know how the night time sleep goes without kitty disruptions!

Cry it out.

Well, we finally did it. Ella turns 7 months old in a few days. She goes to bed at 6:30 or 7pm and wakes up about 6:30am. But she does nurse twice in the night. Once around 11pm or so and once around 2am or so.

The 2am feeding was starting to make me wonder. She was feeding again after only three hours. She goes longer than that during the day when she's all active and such...and she goes for a good 5 hour stretch from when she goes to bed until when she wakes up to feed again. So we were thinking this 2am wake up was just out of habbit.

So we decided to finally employ the "cry it out" method. Many of my friends have employed this method and I'd heard it could be pretty bad. Actually, it wasn't for us....at least not last night. Sure enough she woke around 2am and we waited to see what she would do instead of just going in to feed her. She would fuss, fall back asleep, fuss...cry a little, fall back a sleep etc. etc. This went on for one hour and Jason went in and rubbed her tummy and gave her her pacifier back two times. And that was it. No screaming. No wailing. Not even any extended crying. Back to sleep soundly and woke at her regular time. So we expect to do this for another few nights and then our hope is that she'll sleep that long stretch on her own without waking up.

And last but not least. I know all the theories about parenting and you can theorize all you want that this method will cause trauma to a child. But I chose to look at the facts that I know and have seen with my own two eyes:

1. 1.) I know that five of my friends have used this method with their children. Btween those five friends there are 7 children between the ages of 2 years and 8 years old. All of their children are not only happy, secure, well adjusted children...but they are also children with really great sleep habits....which the benefits of are undeniable (sleep plays a critical role in immune function, metabolism, memory, learning, and other vital functions.)!
2. 2.) We've done small bits of "cry it out" method ever since Ella was little, letting her cry a bit before she falls asleep. We now have a child with predictable, healthy sleep habits that goes right into her crib and goes down for 3 naps a day (1 hour or more long) and bedtime by 7pm in the blink of an eye. 6-9 months old need about 15 hours of sleep between naps and night time and she gets a little more than that. She can sooth herself when need be and is blissfully happy.
   
3. 3.) And last but not least, evidence enough for me, is that Ella woke up even HAPPIER this morning than she normally does (and she always wakes up happy!).

We didn't do this method until WE were ready. I'm sure Ella was ready far before we were. But I feel so good about giving her the benefits of healthy sleep! I'll let ya know how it goes!