Sleep

misty  ·  Fri, Feb 12, 2016

Last night was pretty harrowing. Milo woke up at midnight and had a lot of difficulty getting back to sleep. I fed her, laid her down, and she was crying again 20 minutes later. So, I fed her a little big more because I thought maybe I hadn’t given her enough the first time. But she started crying just after I put her down again. All told, she was up for 2 hours, most of it was spent crying with Chase and I listening from the other side of the wall.

The baby sleep books told us that it’s best to let her cry for a few minutes, comfort her for about a minute or two, then let her cry for longer. Each time, we’re supposed to let her cry longer and spend less time comforting her. That way, she knows we’re still there to provide support and hopefully gets to sleep on her own.

Chase was the one who was able to provide the comfort for her. He went in, talked to and soothed her, rubbed her back and her feet, and she calmed right down. When I went in, she became more agitated and didn’t calm down at all, probably because she wanted me to pick her up or feed her. So it was Chase who had to do the comforting, which was hard for me. But he did a great job.

Milo then Woke again at 6am, and after I fed her, it didn’t take too long for her to get back to sleep. She slept until after 8, which felt like a miracle.

So, today I went to work at getting Milo to nap not in my arms, and it went surprisingly well. First, I put her down in her crib for her morning nap, and she did not like that at all. She was up within 1 minute. So, I played with her for a while longer until she was tired again, and this time she slept for 45 minutes on our bed without me next to her. Her next nap was a whopping 2 hours, again on the bed by herself. I was so excited! We’ll try to keep this up.

In the afternoon, Chase got home at around 4pm, and then we decided to go out for an afternoon walk at Land’s End. It was amazing, and Milo loved it! It was her first time out to the ocean (though we did not go down to the water), and she was just very observant of the world around her. We ended our walk at the Land’s End Labyrinth, and Chase walked Milo through it. We got some really great photos in front of the Golden Gate, and Milo was in good spirits almost until the end.

This evening’s bed time was good, and Chase and I got to watch a movie that we’ve been meaning to see. Not a bad day, especially given that I was so incredibly stressed when it started.

Notes:

• I tried giving Milo her cup again today, and it seems like she’s forgotten how to drink from the straw. I’ll have to give her more opportunities to try it out.

• Milo again wanted to stand to play all day, which was pretty tiring for me. She also wanted to sit to play and spent very little time on her tummy again. Though when she did get on her tummy, she got up on her hands and knees and rocked some more. It never gets old.