A Cry in the Dark

Emily is one of those babies who seeks out the tags on every toy. I had heard about these toys covered in tags for that very purpose, so I did a quick search on Amazon and found Taggies. I ordered Emily an elephant toy and a blankie. I thought that the tags on the blanket might help her sooth herself back to sleep at night instead of screaming out for me. I would love to write "screaming out for her parents", but let's be honest, when you are nursing a baby, there is no "we" at 1 and 4 AM. I'm not bitter, but direct. And after eight months of fronting the nighttime duties, Emily wouldn't be too thrilled if someone else came to rescue her in the dark.

Do the Taggies work? Yes and no. I do notice her handling each of the tags around the blanket while she's falling asleep for naptime. But nighttime is a different story. She used to be such a great sleeper! She routinely covered 7 hours in a stretch, even as young as two months old. But after her first bout with teething, all that sleep training got thrown out the window. So now I have an almost-eight month old who goes to bed at 8 pm and gets up at 1 am and 4 am, finally waking for the day around 7:30 AM. This series of "naps" that I get every night are draining me. So my next plan of action? Crying it out.

Last night was my first crying it out session. Emily was down at 8 pm. She usually passes out while nursing and I put her sleeping body in the crib (not a great way to teach her how to put herself to sleep, but I digress). I placed her gently in the crib and the minute her body hit those sheets she was wide awake. I put her blanket on her and said goodnight and headed for the door. Waterworks insued (her, not me). I went to my bedroom to ride it out with a game of Solitaire on the computer. Emily cried from 8:02 pm to 8:13 pm. Not exactly the horror stories I had heard from other people about how their baby cried for 2 1/2 hours the first night. I heard her stir at 9 pm and she whimpered from 9 pm to 9:02 pm. I got up to feed her at 1:20 am. Then at 4:45 am. So now that I have the "going to bed" crying it out down, I am moving on to the nighttime feedings. Tonight: no 1 am feeding. In a few days: bye bye 4 am feeding. Wish me luck :)