Out with the old....

Well, we are trying something new here at home.  You see, Lucy is a terrible sleeper at night.  I don't talk about it much on the blog, or anywhere really as we break billions of rules when it comes to toddler sleep.  Oh we have let her sleep in our bed (doesn't everyone love sleeping on 6 inches of mattress while your tiny baby manages to take up the rest?!?).  We rarely make her cry it out.  We gave her a nighttime bottle for far (FAR) too long and have always rocked her to sleep.  We even have made a small bed for her on the floor next to our bed, all in an effort to get her to actually sleep through the night.  So clearly, it's not entirely her fault that she has no ability to self-soothe....but encouraging this behavior has been trying at best.

Usually she never had a problem going to sleep but if she woke up in the middle of the night there was little we could do to get her back to sleep, hence the bed on our floor for her.  However recently, she decided that now she doesn't want to sleep unless she is in our arms. This kid truly is a diva in training.  She could be snoring away while we rock her and the second we even think about budging, she is crying.  Usually, we have just continued to keep rocking her and rocking her and rocking her.  And when that doesn't work, well, we cave and just bring her down to our room where she sleeps like a rock.  Hey, just cause she is a diva doesn't mean my heart doesn't melt for this little girl.  Most of the time.

Anyways we finally decided enough was enough and we were taking back the position of boss in the house.  Our latest effort starts with putting jammies on and then reading a few books on the couch during quiet time.  Then we head upstairs, snuggle on the rocker with a blankie and read one more book.  We say our prayers and then rock her for awhile.  Then we place her in her crib and but instead of leaving the room, we stay in the rocking chair.  She tosses and turns and cries for awhile but finally settles down.  She pops her head up every couple of minutes to make sure we are still here and then curls up again.

Here I am blogging while she is curled up in her crib

It's not a bad plan so far.  It's giving me time to blog or catch up on reading and when Pat puts her down he has plenty of time to check emails and surf the web.  So hopefully the means we are finally moving in the right direction!  Well, at least until our little stinker decides to mix things up again!  That's the great thing about babies....they can make you want to pull your hair out all day, but the second they fall asleep they are like a perfect slice of heaven.  Night, night sweet girl!