The Smell of Victory!

So who's been defeated, aside from OU? The Sleep Thief. Yes. That creature that had taken Sophie and was whispering strategic plans for her to sabotage our sleep. I'm determined he reads this bedtime story to his victims and it contains these chapters: 1:how to keep dark circles under your parents' eyes (phases 1 & 2 as there are phases of that you know), 2: how to fool the parents into thinking you are going to go to sleep when really you are doing no such thing, 3: how to sleep all day and receive good reviews during that time period, wait until bedtime to wake and fidgit, and final chapter 4: how to remain sweet, cuddly and cute and still get the sleep you deserve but not allow your parents to get theirs. It's a bestseller and only infants can find it in a nursery near them.

Last night we defeated him, and I hope he is gone for good! David brought Sophie into our room with the Boppy, as he often does on his way out the door after he's done his early feeding at 7am. He lays her in it, in her darling little swaddle, she's still fast asleep and he says, "Stacy, we did it!" I was somewhat out of it. I rolled over and patted the cutie and said, "What? Huh?" He says, "she slept through the night!" And I smiled and thought to myself--I AM the Baby Whisperer--do not mess with me, I can defeat The Sleep Thief. His book is history in this house!

Just last night David and I were discussing her sleeping patterns and habits. We were getting restless as she doesn't seem to actually have a pattern. I know she's still young but we thought she'd have the routine down a bit more by now. Actually she's been pretty good at night, that is once she goes to sleep. However, we can't seem to shake her bedtime being between 11:30pm-12:30am (I'd like to make it around 8-9pm) and she's often a bit restless before then. Sometimes it's fussiness others just wide awake and fusses if we put her in her bed.

She seems to make 11:30pm-12:30am (somewhere in there) her permanent final bedtime and then she sleeps pretty good. For the past 4 days we've let her just wake us in the night for feeding. Prior to that we would set an alarm and feed her every 3 hours. We read in our books that to begin the transition and help your baby start to sleep through the night you can begin to not wake to feed them but rather let them sleep and just let them wake you if they are going to. She was doing that. We'd finally get her down at midnight and she'd wake up around 3-4am and I'd go feed her, then she'd wake again around 7am, repeat.

Not last night. Last night I got her to bed at midnight, almost exactly. But I did it differently. See, yesterday she was actually fussy somewhat all day. Just on and off squeaking and whining. Not good with her napping or feeding. She was only taking about 3 ounces each meal, sometimes 2, and she was taking 4-4.5 ounces for the past week prior to yesterday--finishing every drop! At about 5pm she was so restless and needed to nap that I bundled her in her stoller and we went aroudn the block. Her first walk outside. She liked it and then fell asleep 3 minutes into it! When we got home I tried to put her in her bed for her nap. Nope, she wasn't having that. I should have left her in the stroller! Anyway, so she was "off" yesterday and we were preparing for a crummy night . . .

Then the Lord told his angels to be good to the Greers and lo and behold--we had a night of snoozing bliss! I got her to bed around midnight. And mind you I did it with my Baby Whispering skills that I learned from my book (mentioned in my last post). I don't know if it worked or if she just happened to go to sleep but I think the first is true. Funny thing is that David was all frustrated because she just didn't seem to see snoozing in sight for a while and at around 11:30 we were both in the nursery. I brought the book in to read the sleep section to David. I have been drawing out reading the book because I read it in the bath when I'm soaking and the outside world is gone for just a moment. Well I hadn't done that in about a week so I had dropped into a hot bath of bubbles around 10:30pm and read the section I should have read weeks ago--"S" for sleep. So I was so excited at what I read I wanted to share it with David and then try to follow the suggestions.

I Baby Whispered my way into the night. The dogs were all snug around us, the wind was blowing slightly outside and all I could hear was the humming of the dryer. I drifted off at 1am or so (hey I stayed up on facebook) and woke to David plopping her off on the Boppy at 7:15am. She actually stayed asleep even then and I took her back to her bed and she slept there until 10am. I went in to get her up and feed her. She was a sleepy, sleepy head. Now it's 3pm and she was supposed to take her nap at 2pm. Hmmmm. I was just in the middle of the Baby Whispering and the phone rang . . .

We'll let you know how this night goes tonight. In the meantime here is Sophie in her shades. She's letting us know her true feelings on them. I was literally LOL when I downloaded this to the computer and saw the full size image. Hilarious. I'll also leave you with a video of my sleepy little angel. I went into her room around 8am and videoed (is that a word?) her sleeping peacefully. Isn't she cute?