Unbridled Optimism!!

Well, after our first night at attempting to have Lilli sleep in her crib, I thought I probably should have titled my previous post "Unfounded Optimism" rather than "Guarded Optimism." As soon as Bob and I got into bed, little Miss Light Sleeper perked up her ears and declared the unfairness of the whole system. I had managed to get her to go back to sleep at one point before this, and although it had taken awhile, I was optimistic that we could do it again. Hmmmm. So anyway, Bob had a go at it and she immediately commenced Operation Screaming. This was psychological warfare and she was running a pretty effective campaign. We managed to keep our cool and Bob continued to pat her belly and sing to her in her crib. She didn't try and sit up but clearly she was protesting. After a LONG WHILE of this, I decided to try my hand at it. As we women know, what a man cannot do, we women must :) (jk, Bob :)) I sang and sang and patted and patted but my patience only managed to make Lilli start this horrible heart breaking keening noise as though I was twisting a knife in her little heart. It was almost too much to take, but I think I might have been able to last through it if by that time both my legs hadn't fallen asleep from leaning over the crib rail so that I would sing in her ear. We have a cheapo crib from Ikea that has no working mechanical parts such as a rail that slides down. So we CAVED, which was ok, because our No Cry Sleep Solution book says it's not a do or die situation. As soon as I brought Lilli to bed she was all smiles and coos and she immediately snuggled her head into my neck and went to sleep which made me feel SO GUILTY of course. How could I have inflicted such torture onto my own child?

So, last night, Bob and I were scared, but we were determined to fight off guilt, keep the big picture in mind (sleeping! alone! together!) and to be persistent and try again. We put her successfully in the crib to sleep, then when we went to bed we were very very quiet. Like mice! We held our breaths for a very long time before it seemed clear that she was NOT going to wake up and oh, joy! How lovely it is to sleep in one's own bed and move around! Although, of course, there was not much moving around as we didn't want to make too much noise (we will have to save that for that next step: moving the crib back to the nursery). So in any case, we awoke at 3:30 to see her standing in the crib, and Bob carefully laid her back down and she didn't even MAKE A PEEP. Ok, so she didn't go to sleep, but no crying! Bob sang to her and patted her and and she just stared up at him and smiled, for like, twenty minutes. Finally, I decided to nurse her, even though I don't want to encourage that, because I knew it would speed the process along and plus I figured better to reward her not crying then giving in when she is wailing. So I nursed her and then Bob put her back in the crib while she was still drowsy. NOW, the crying started, but it was more like a quiet whining than the heart breaking banshee wailing of the previous night. And who could blame her? She had just been ripped from my warm boob! After a bit I swooped in and sshhhed her and she fell asleep and we all slept soundly until around six when she had her morning nurse and then up at 7 am. Not perfect but SUCH PROGRESS in just one night. I am much encouraged. The only thing hindering us now is this darn cold she has. She is like a snot faucet.