Weekend Bits

This post could more appropriately be titled "Adventures in Sleep Training"... because that's what our weekend consisted of. Ina's been a champion sleeper since the early days - to the point where I'd feel bad admitting that she sleeps through the night to other parents I'd talk to who were getting up multiple times every night for months and months on end.

But...

She relied on us to fall asleep. We'd walk with her and bounce her and "shhh" her and sing to her... some nights she'd fall asleep quickly, other nights we'd be bouncing and "shhh"-ing for up to an hour. But she's getting big, and heavy, and would squirm in our arms trying to get comfortable and it was getting hard putting her down. We knew it was time to sleep train, but that's a hard step to take, knowing that it would involve a few nights of A LOT of crying and, honestly, what parents want to sit back and listen to their baby scream? It's torture.

It sucked. She cried. I curled up on the couch and ate a lot of chocolate. The first night she cried for 50 minutes straight before falling alseep. It was heart-wrenching and miserable and we nearly gave up a few different times in that hour. But she fell asleep, and woke up happy. We did the same routine with her naps during the day, which meant we stayed close to home all weekend and let her sleep dictate our outings. The second night, I settled in on the couch with a box of cookies, prepared to eat them all... and I barely got through a couple of them, before....... *silence*...... she fell asleep after only 12 minutes of crying. It was amazing.

So we'll see how the rest of the week goes, and hopefully this new routine will open up new possibilities of date nights (a babysitter can put her to bed! we can go out on the town!) and spending time together in the evenings instead of one of us pacing back and forth with Iny for an hour.

Way to sleep, bug!

I hope all of you slept well this weekend, too. Have a wonderful week, friends!