The ups and downs of SLEEP

This is a post that I imagine no one but me will care about, but since I'm really using this blog as a journal for myself and Maya to look back on someday I wanted to document it.  Plus, we might reach this same point with her little sister and in my sleep deprived state it will be a good reminder of what helped with Maya.

Maya has always been a relatively good sleeper, but it became very tough in the last few months.  It all started when she cut her molars, then she came down with bronchitis, then we were met with some sort of 18 month scream in the middle of the night sleep regression, most of this while I entered first trimester of pregnancy with the sheer exhaustion and nausea that comes along with it. Through all of this we went into full fledged survival mode.  All the good sleep habits we had established were thrown out the window so the entire family could get some sort of sleep each night.  Well, this had become exhausting.  It was taking a whole lot of effort to get her to sleep each night and naps were an even bigger struggle.  We were all a bit frustrated.

It started to become clear that the rocking before sleep was becoming detrimental to the entire process.  Although Maya and I both loved the snuggles, she was restless, couldn't get comfortable (in part to my growing belly) and it had simply become habit over the last few months.  She would finally fall asleep in my arms and then the transfer to the bed would wake her up and she would be confused and pissed.  But, we didn't know how to switch gears!  The tactics we had tried in the past were just not working this time around.  Plus, she is working on some more teeth and we are all struggling with colds so it didn't seem fair to just let her cry in the midst of that, but something needed to be done.

Out of ideas, one night I put her in the crib after stories and a couple minutes of snuggles and just sat on the floor next to it.  She wasn't happy, but only cried for about 10 minutes or so before settling down and falling asleep.  By the fourth night, zero tears when I put her down!  Two nights ago after stories, she pointed right at her crib and said "Maya Bed".  I asked her if she was ready to go lay down in her bed, she looked at me and said "Yep".  I was SHOCKED.  We went over, I laid her down and she went right to sleep.  Same story the last two nights.  This really was what we all needed.

There is one last step, I need to get myself out of the room while she falls asleep, but we will get there.  I've moved from sitting on the floor next to her crib, to the chair on the other side of the room so that will be the next step.  But, honestly at this point, sitting in her room for 10-15 minutes of peace and quiet while she is settling down isn't so bad and I'm counting it as a huge success (at least until we hit a new setback or transition)!

More proof that she really is growing up.  The baby in her in disappearing more and more each day.