Family Musings

I've wanted to write this blog posts for months, maybe even a year. And I almost did last October . Well, I wrote a pre-cursor to this post, but it backfired. Once I put the information out into the universe, a cruel twist was thrust into my story, leaving me hanging for another four months. But now, my dream has been realized. And I've been living it for almost two weeks. So I think now, it is finally time to share my new reality with you. Are you sitting down? (Duh you're reading this on a computer so of course you are!) Okay. Here is it. My big news. Charlotte. Is. Sleeping. Through. The. Night. Woo hoo!!! Are you cheering with me? I bet if you have ever raised a kid, you probably are. I wish I could spell out a specific magic formula for how this happened. Lord knows I gave the No-Cry Sleep Solution its due time (six months!). But really, it came down to Charlotte was finally ready to have sleep be more important to her than nursing. Contrary to the opinion of some peop...

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Charlotte slept for 10 straight hours last night. No, that isn't a type, I mean to put the 1 in front of the 0 to make the number ten. I could hardly believe it myself, but it is true. I loved being able to sleep from about 10:30 pm until 5:30 am. That is more continuous sleep than ever in the last ~15 months. I hope this continues for a long, long time. Right now, she nurses right before going to sleep and then again in the early morning (between 4-5 am). My plan, once she sleeps really well for an entire week, is to switch her bedtime nursing session to before bath time. I'd really love for her to be able to go to sleep without nursing. Then, Bruce and I could go out in the evening more often and leave her with her grandparents. (I'm not ready for a random babysitter yet. And why should I, when G-ma loves to spend time with Charlotte?) So.... I am one happy, and very well-rested momma today. I may even be back with a new video blog soon...

Okay, I'm really not so an al retentive that I counted 175 nights from the first time we tried Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution, but we are some where in the ball park with that number. I figured since there hadn't been an update since night 31, it was time for one, especially considering that we've finally made some progress. For the last three nights, Charlotte has slept 6 hours straight, without waking up and asking for her Momma's Milk. You could say that I am thrilled. I'll say that I am well-rested. I haven't been able to get that much straight sleep since BEFORE Charlotte was born and I was getting up to use the potty 2 times a night. What made this sudden change? I don't know. A switch just flipped in her brain, she gave up her 11 pm nursing session and now loves sleep more than milk. Can I tell you that our mornings and afternoons are happier too? They are. I love this little creature I call my daughter. She is suddenly more affectiona...

It is hard to believe that I have been working on our sleep issues for a solid month. Apart from the fact that I really miss sleeping in my bedroom, we are actually making progress. Now that Charlotte has finally cut her top 2 teeth, she is much less fussy and needy at night. We have also stopped our nightly doses of baby Tylenol. Our typical night now has Charlotte nursing to sleep around 8 pm and then staying asleep until 11 pm. From there, she is pretty consistent with her 2 am and 4 am wakings. One of the hardest parts for me is that when she falls back asleep after her 4 am waking, I have to wake her up by 6 am in order to get her dressed and nursed before we go to school. I know her sleep would be better overall if I didn't have to interrupt it so much. There is something I am getting better at though. I am not getting her at her first cries because she really does cry and fuss in her sleep. And if she persists and doesn't seem to be going back to sleep, I try to comfort ...

It has been a few days since my last sleep update and I'm not sure if I can report this as progress or not. For the last several nights (with the exception of Saturday night) she has been going to bed right around 8 pm and then waking up at 11 pm, 1 or 2 am, and 4 am. Last night, after she pulled off, she kept shaking her head back and forth about 5 or 6 times, until she finally got it nestled in just where she wanted it. I'm not sure though, how her leg ended up propped up on the wall while she slept last night though. Bizarre. I was hoping we'd have more to report about sleeping through the night by now, but since we don't, I keep reminding myself that even Elizabeth Pantley said it can take a minimum of 2 months to see any improvement.

I am happy to report that last night was much like the night before. Charlotte woke around 11, 2, & 4. Momma feels more rested after 2 good nights than she has in a very long time. Let's pray it keeps getting better. I was worried though because our routine was a little off yesterday. After we came home from daycare and nursed, Charlotte fell asleep for about 1 hour and 45 minutes. When she woke up at 6:45 or so, I knew she probably wouldn't want to go back to bed at 8 pm. So I fed her about half a jar of Apples and Apricots (which she liked much better this evening), then let her play with the Cheerios before finally bathing her around 7:45. We quickly worked through the routine and ended up skipping story time with Daddy because she became suddenly very hungry and tired all at once. We have some plans for this afternoon which mean we will get home late. Hopefully she will stay happy while we are out and we can do the routine when we come back. At the very least, I get to ...

We've been trying to adjust Charlotte's sleep patterns for 15 nights now. I'd like to report that we have consistently moved in the right direction. But, instead it seems like one step forward then two steps back. Last night was a step forward. Charlotte went down at her 8 PM nursing and stayed down until about 11:15 PM. I brought her into bed to nurse her again and we both fell asleep until 1:15 AM or so. We nursed again, only this time I stayed awake and put her into her crib when she was done. Then, praise God, she didn't wake again until 4:30! That 3 hour stretch is the longest one so far since we started more than 2 weeks ago. I am not really sure what made last night different. Could it have been the Cheerios before bath time? The 3 different types of baby food she did NOT want to eat? The trip to the mall, did it wear her out? I don't know. But, I do know: She likes Honey Nut Cheerios and can eat them if I break them in half now. She didn't like Apples ...

Again, I think we only woke up 2 times last night. Charlotte spent a few hours in her crib and the rest in bed with me. I still find myself co-sleeping because it takes less mental energy from me in the middle of the night. That's okay with me. My main goal is to get Charlotte to not need to be latched on and for her to sleep more than 2 hours straight. I was worried about how the night would go since her routine was a bit off last night. I ran an couple of errands up to Lake Wales and didn't get home until almost 7:30. I did a quick nursing on one side and then let Daddy do his part of quiet play and story time. When we laid down to go to sleep it didn't take as long though since she was probably extra tired from our trip out. Here is a picture of both of us sleeping the day we brought her home from the hospital. I really can't believe how much she has grown. Last night one of our errands was to church and many people to chatted with hadn't seen her in more than ...

Yesterday Charlotte took 2, 2 hour and 15 minute naps at daycare. When I saw that as I picked Charlotte up, I was really hoping that Erica's theory about sleep begetting sleep is right. And I think it is. But it is hard to know because I only remember waking up a couple of times last night. Charlotte only slept in her crib for the first 2 hours of the night and then came in with me, but she wasn't attached to me all night thank goodness. I think we are making progress.

What a difference a schedule makes! Yesterday we were back on track and our night time was so much better. I don't really remember the specifics, but I know we didn't wake up every 60 minutes... couldn't have based on how I felt this morning. Still praying for 3 hours of solid sleep from the girl so I can get my beauty rest!

I learned the hard way that consistency is IMPORTANT. On Sunday our routine was very different from what it had been and Charlotte made it clear that it wasn't working for her. Anyone who saw us before 6 pm on Sunday thought we had the world's best baby. She took almost a 90 minutes nap while we were eating dinner to give Mommy and Daddy a chance to eat and socialize. But once we got in the car to go home - someone swapped my baby out for one possessed by a demon. It took us more a little over 2 1/2 hours to make the 1 1/2 hour trip home. We stopped 2 times. Granted, one of those stops included a new Target, but that was only to give her a chance to get out of her baby bucket (aka car seat) since we thought that might be the cause of her unhappiness. Turns out we we wrong. All of that to say that Sunday night was one of our hardest nights ever. She cried the entire way home, except while we were stopped. Then, once we got home, she refused to sleep unless she was latched on ...

Last night was better in some ways and not in others... I finished the book when we got home yesterday afternoon and then talked with Bruce to make a bedtime and routine for Charlotte that we could both participate in. We decided an 8 pm bedtime would be best for her so that she could get ~10 hours of sleep to go with her 2-3 hours of naps during the day. Here is the plan: 7:00 pm - Bath 7:15 pm - Dress in pjs and play in bedroom with daddy 7:30 pm - Book time until she loses interest 7:45 pm - Quite playtime with mommy and nurse 1 more time 8:00 pm - Rock/nurse until she is almost asleep A key component to making night time sleeping work, according to Pantley, is getting enough daytime sleep. Before reading the book, if Charlotte fell asleep while nursing after school, I would try to keep her awake so she would sleep at night. Apparently, this was hurting and not helping. So, when she fell asleep at 4, I laid her in her crib and she slept for an hour. When she got up, we played and ha...

It finally arrived! Last night I got my hands on a used copy of The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantely. While I haven't had time to read books hardly at all since Charlotte was born, I somehow managed to find time to read the first 125 pages of this one, all in one afternoon. The basic premise of the book is that there has to be a way to teach a baby to fall asleep without using a crutch and without forcing them to cry-it-out. I knew early on in Charlotte's life that letting her cry-it-out was not an option for our family, so this book seemed like it would be a good fit. After reading that much of the book I wasn't willing to wait one more night before trying some of the solutions it presented. I have been so tired and sleep-deprived these last few months especially that it is taking more and more caffeine each day to help me function. I cut myself off by 2 pm, but I know it has to be affecting Charlotte in ways...