Jumping our First Hurdle

I have been procrastinating this blog.

I wanted to be able to post, "Sleep problems are solved! Everything is back to normal!"

and

They are!

After almost 2 weeks of waking up at night, taking 45 minute naps, having a hard time going to bed, we have officially conquered Charlotte's sleep regression (4 days and counting!) The sleep-squelching bandit? The Swaddler! After much trial and error, lots of tears (from us both) and advice from every woman who has ever birthed a baby, or even been in the same room as a baby, or said the word baby, we figured out our little Miss did not want to be a baby burrito anymore. She was yelling "set me free!"  It just took 2 weeks for me to figure it out. The transition out of baby bondage was pretty smooth. The first night (still swaddled) we had a 45 minute sleep-cry-sleep-cry session before she finally succumbed to Mr. Sandman.  That night she woke up once but went right back to sleep. The next night the crying started even earlier.  She started her revolt as soon as the blanket was zipped up. Refused to nurse, didn't want her Paci, just wanted to yell, "let me out of here!" So, throwing caution to the wind, I unzipped her torture chamber and released her arms.  Asleep within 45 seconds.

Really? That was all you wanted? This couldn't have been so simple! Why didn't you just say so!

It wasn't. Well, it almost was. That night she woke up every 2 hours, but was back asleep in less than a minute.

I thought, let's give it one more try and if night #2 is as big of a train wreck as night #1, we will return to baby bondage and head back to the drawing board. So bed time rolls around. We follow our same bedtime routine, except no swaddler this time.  She nurses well, and falls asleep with in 5 minutes of being put down. Not holding my breath, I head to bed with the baby monitor in hand.  At 5 AM I jump out of bed and realize I haven't heard from the baby in 10 hours! Wanting to check on her, but willing to do anything to not wake her up, I begin to ponder my options.  Too cold to go peak through the window, and Abbey wasn't able to get me any useful info; I decide I just need to go make sure she was okay. As I'm reluctantly dawning my slippers, she makes a sweet little noise through the monitor. As if to tell me, "don't worry Mom, I'm as happy as can be. Thank you for letting me have my arms back!" She slept until 7.

Night 3 went even better: not a peep after I put her down until 7 the next morning.

Now, night 4 we hit a speed bump. On Thursday nights we have House Church. I attempted to put Charlotte down at her normal time, following her normal routine, and it was an epic failure. She would fall asleep, then wake herself back up within 2 minutes.  After missing out on the entire evening, we decided to head home a little early and put her to bed in her own crib.

Sleep mission #2: Learn how to sleep in a foreign environment. I didn't have any of her own blankets with me, so I'm hoping next week that will be secret weapon. I know, you're on the edge of your seat to hear the outcome of this crisis!

As far as the starvation saga goes, she seems to be pretty well satisfied. During the day she is content and happy as a clam. Bound and determined to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, I have started giving her an extra 2 ounces of breast milk at bedtime. Seems to do the trick and saves me from needing to give her any food yet.

Now for my confession, I didn't take a single picture this week!  So for those of you who visit this blog simply to admire my beautiful baby, check back next week! We are having professional pictures taken on Monday by my incredibly talented cousin and I am jumping out of my skin excited!  I have absolutely no idea what to dress her in, but I have the weekend to decide.

Better get started!