War on Sleep

About a month ago when Grace and I traveled to Georgia I assumed there would be some changes in Grace's sleeping habits. What I was not prepared for was the 3 week battle with my daughter to get her to sleep at all. It started our first night in GA, I knew that she would probably be up "later" then normal due to the fact that there is a 2 hour time difference. So I waited till about 9:30 pm EST to start our normal bedtime routine of bath, book, bottle, & bed. Everything was going great until we got to the bed  part. She refused to lay down at all. I thought okay she's just excited about being in a new place. So I let her run around some more with her Aunt and MeMaw. Finally at around midnight I was able to get her to lay down with me in the bed and fall asleep. I gently laid her down in her pac n play expecting her to sleep till at least 9 am. She got up at around 4 am and would not sleep unless she was laying in bed with me. I was exhausted so I gave in and she slept with me until 7 where she woke up bright eyed a bushy tailed. This patterer continued thought out the whole week we were there. Getting up in the middle of night sometimes going back to sleep once she realized I was in the room, but other times not sleeping again unless she was laying in bed with me. As good of a time it was to be back "home" I was looking forward to coming home getting her back into her routine in her room and getting a good nights "sleep".  I was so naive!!

I had expected some resistance to getting back into our sleep pattern, but as I said I was completely blind sided be the war that waged on for 3 weeks. The first week home Grace was up a minimum of 5 times a night. No amount of rocking, bottle feeding, or crying it out would put her to sleep. Since I knew letting her sleep in our bed was a BAD idea I would regret later I opted for making myself a small pallet of blankets and spent three nights on the floor in her room. After night 3 I just gave in letting her come sleep in our room at about 5 am just hoping for a couple of extra hours of sleep. Steve helped out when he could, but I always tried to let him sleep since I could cat nap with her though out the day although we had company that week so sometimes finding a nap was not easy. I was so excited when he took the morning shift that Saturday letting me sleep in till 8. As week 2 rolled around I figured I needed a new plan of attack. So I thought I will try this cry it out theory. As any mother out there knows the sound of her crying is just heartbreaking intensified by her pitiful cries of "MOMMA!", but I thought hey if gets her to sleep maybe it was worth the try. Grace decided she didn't like this game and pulled out her very own trump cards. She would either poop her diaper or throw up knowing that I would have to come in there and change/clean her up. Touché Grace Catherine! Since I didn't feel like cleaning up vomit every night I decided this method just wasn't going to work for us on to plan C.

Just ride it out....I figured this was just a phase and surely it would have to end sooner or later. Weather that meant another week or 5 years I had no idea, but nothing else was working. So week 3 came about and I decided to just go with the flow. I moved her bedtime back an hour in hopes that tiring her out a little more would help her sleep better. Which it did till about 4 am. Then I would get up with her, change her diaper and feed her about 2 ounces and place her back in bed. This method seemed to be working only twice that week did she wake up again before 7 am.  I took some advice from some mommy friends this past weekend and placed a dim light in her room and like 5 pacifiers in her crib. Sure enough monday night she slept from 9:30pm -7am. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I woke up almost completely rested Tuesday morning. Tuesday night the same thing. I would hear her get up for about ten minutes move around the crib looking for her passy and then silence. I am trying really hard to not the jinx it but I think we have finally won the sleep battle. Which makes this mommy a very happy and pretty rested camper!! Just in time for the holidays!