Sunday, October 08, 2006

Operation Sleeping in Crib

Well, we are off to a rocky, but not altogether unsuccessful start to getting Lilli to sleep in her crib. First I want to thank everyone who has called or e-mailed their words of encouragement to me. It has made such a difference in my confidence level that I am doing the right thing.

On Friday night, I rocked Lilli to sleep and placed her in the crib. She didn't stir, which is unusual. She awoke at midnight and screamed for an hour and a half. I went in every 10 minutes or so and laid her back down in the crib and told her it was bedtime and time to go to sleep. She would stand right back up and commence the screaming. At 1:30 A.M. I decided to make a "bed" on the floor and sleep in the room with her. This worked until 5:30 A.M. and then I brought her onto the floor with me. Between 1:30 and 5:30 she woke up every hour and stayed up for 10 minutes or so. After I put her on the floor, we slept until 8:00 A.M. and then we were up for the day. She was in a surprisingly good mood. My biggest fear was that she was going to hate me in the morning for torturing her all night.

Saturday night went a bit differently. I decided that rocking her to sleep was counterproductive to what we had already accomplished. I had stopped rocking her to sleep and felt that I shouldn't start it back up. So, we went to Target and purchased an inflatable mattress and set it up in her room. At bed time I placed her in her crib and laid down on the mattress. She screamed, standing up, for about 10 minutes and then laid down and went to sleep. She slept there until 3:45 A.M. and then she came down on the mattress with me. During her nap today, I did the same thing except that she slept in her crib for her entire nap.

I am getting ready to begin the nightly scream fest. I'll update more later!

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