Wah wah wah

WHEW! After our champion sleeper abandoned her previous sleep-10-hours-with-absolutely-no-interruptions pattern over the past few weeks, we decided it might be time to bite the bullet. We have rocked her to sleep and/or nursed her to sleep for her entire life thus far and have always done the same if she woke up in the middle of the night. I bought a book on the subject that Kristin (my sort of cousin out in San Diego whose baby, Maddie, is just a couple of months older than Charlie) told me about. It reassured me that Charlie is plenty old enough to make it through the night without eating (and since she had done this one her own for several months, it made sense) and that she would be able to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night if she did the same to fall asleep initially. Of course, this means that we needed to let Charlie cry herself to sleep. Ack!

I wasn't fooling myself about it -- I knew I was going to hate to hear her cry. No parent in the world likes it. Corey and I steeled ourselves for a long evening of discomfort. He poured us each a glass of wine after we set Charlie in her crib (at about 8:00 p.m., after nursing and bathing her) and she began to bawl. We turned the monitor off because she was plenty loud enough to hear (even all the way downstairs) -- amplification of her cries was totally unnecessary. Duke cowered on the stairs and licked his lips.

She would cry for a few minutes, then angrily suck her thumb and growl, then cry, then growl, and then ... silence. I checked the clock on my cell phone. Had it been two long, torturous hours? Nope - 12 whole minutes. A quick check of the video monitor revealed Charlie curled up at the foot of her crib, snoozing like an angel. We called the grandmothers, texted friends to let them know how the ordeal went, and then we celebrated with more wine.

The next time we heard from Charlie was a couple of hours after we went to bed. I honestly don't remember how long she whimpered, but it was not long at all. She really didn't even get going with a full-on cry for more than a few seconds. The rest of the night, she has slept like a rock.

So why did I wake up at 5:00 a.m.? I'm not really sure. Corey did the same thing, so he went in to work (something he needed to do for a few hours today anyway). I'm dying to see how long Charlie Jo will sleep this morning -- we're already at the 10-hour mark that usually signaled the end of her sleep in months past, and she shows no signs of rousing. The book indicates that it is a good idea for a baby to sleep for 12 hours or so a night, so I will try to keep Charlie in her crib until 8:00 a.m. We may go to Stroller Strides, and then we have lots of preparations for tomorrow's third annual Pumpkin Carving Party we're throwing.

I'm so proud of Charlie Jo! I hope she knows how much we love her and how much it kills us to hear her unhappy. Her great night of sleep shows how much she needs it though. Faith Carol is going to babysit tonight while Corey and I attend a firm function, but I think we should be home by the time Charlie needs to go down to sleep. Stay tuned to hear how tonight goes!

In the meantime, here's another video of our champion sleeper doing what she does best...