Healthy sleep habits, happy child

Now that we have an ipad, with the kindle app, we can pretty much get books whenever, wherever.  Which means, the other day, when I was desperate, I bought a few sleep books for babies.  Instantly right at my fingertips.  One of those was "Healthy sleep habits, happy child."  I stayed up way later than I should have last night powering through it, and got some inspiration and encouragement from the things I read.  So when I woke up today, I was ready.  Ready to try something new.  Her sleeping only on me during the day had to stop.  I mean, if she fell asleep easily and just wanted to cuddle with me, maaaaaaaybe I would let it continue.  But it was hard freakin' work to get her to sleep AT ALL during the day.  Basically, from what I've read, this little one has been so cranky this past week because she is just plain old exhausted.  She's had a super busy past couple of weeks, her sleep has been disturbed by visitors and by travel, and it's all catching up to her and she is t-i-r-e-d.  And since sleep begets sleep, well, lack of sleep begets... lack of sleep?

Anywho.  So I woke up this morning determined to try some new things and see what happened.  First, she woke up for the morning at 6:30am, I fed her, and by 7:00 I had her in her crib.  No messing around here.  She was asleep by 7:20, NO TEARS, and I thought I was a genius.  Until she woke up at 7:50.  30 minute nap, not so good.  She did wake up fairly happy though, so that was a start.  Next nap... I put her in bed at 8:45, she was quiet for a few minutes, then started to cry.  I let her cry for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes I went and picked her up and settled her, then put her straight back in her crib.  She started to cry right away, and I let her cry for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile I took a shower to avoid losing my mind from listening to my baby cry.  After those 10 minutes I picked her up, settled her, and put her back in bed.  Immediately she started to cry, I left her for another 10 minutes while I went and did dishes to distract myself.  After those ten minutes, I had already decided I would give it a MAX of ten more minutes before I'd had enough for this nap...  BUT, after I picked her up, she calmed down, and started to fall asleep, so I put her back in her bed, and sure enough, she fell asleep at 9:25.  Holy.  Moly.  I gave myself a pat on the back, and basically watched her through the video monitor until she woke up.  Good use of time, I know.  But it worked.  She fell asleep in her crib.  Twice.  During the day.  Commence applause.

Now before we all get too excited... she woke up 30 minutes later.  But I swooped her up and she fell back asleep for an hour and a half.  We tried the same thing for her next nap, she cried 5 minutes, I got her, put her back down, she cried almost 10 minutes, I got her, and put her back in her crib and she feel asleep.  This third nap lasted for 40 minutes, but then I picked her up and she slept for 2 more hours.  Now even though these are short naps, I consider this hugely successful.  She has taken 3 out of 3 naps in her crib today.  Falling asleep on her own (yes, with some crying, but still, sleeping by herself).  And yes, for two of them I picked her up after her short nap and she slept longer, but we're taking baby steps here.  And even though I've had to listen to her cry, I feel like I have SO much more energy.  Plus, I did dishes, laundry, and general tidying around the house! 

In fact, she was in such a good mood when Mark got home, we decided to test out her "Joey Jumper."

Me likey.  Video coming soon.

She only lasted about 5 minutes before her little neck got tired and she sort of slumped forward, but she did better than I thought!!  Look at our big girl standing up!!