Confession

Ok, ok... I'll confess. Up until about a week ago, Lily has been sleeping in our room. AND, not only has she been sleeping in our room, she has been sleeping in her bouncy seat. Over protective? Possibly... Child abuse? Maybe... Lazy? Most Definitely....

Well, let me explain... When Lily was about 5 months old we decided to move her out. We had her room all set up and after the inevitable separation anxiety (on both parts) and a few sleepless nights, she did pretty good in her crib for a few weeks. Well, then along came the nasty cold season and little Lily got RSV. She was having trouble breathing, and rather than making 15 trips a night into her room, we moved her back into ours. We had already taken down her bassinette, and thought that maybe the bouncy seat would work on a "temporary basis" - it would keep her elevated and she seemed to sleep better in there...

Well, one month turned into two, two into three, and we discussed many many times how we NEEDED to move this girl out! Part of it was laziness, but most of it was justification. At this point we were about a month away from going on our trip to Samoa. My thinking was why put ourselves (and her) through the trauma of moving her out, only to have to have her get used to sleeping with us again on our trip? That justification bought us 2 more months of keeping this poor kid strapped in her bouncy seat night after night...

We came home from Samoa, and by this point Lily was pulling herself up and cruizing all along furniture and nearly walking. Well, her crib was set up at the high level for infants, and would have to be lowered before we could move her back into her own room. To anyone who has never lowered the mattress in a crib, it is DEFINITELY a two-person job! Getting Wow and I on the same page, at the same time to get this little task done was nearly impossible! That, combined with the fact we didn't want to make the transition during the week while my dad was there, (we knew the tears would be plentiful) we were able to buy ourselves another month or two of Lily sleeping in the bouncy seat in our bedroom.

Finally, during this past month, Lily definitely started telling us she was DONE with this arrangement. She had been sleeping fine, but as she was discovering her own mobility, being strapped into this nearly too-small seat began to frustrate her - even in her sleep! (I can't blame her at all on that one!) There's really no other way to describe it, other than she was seriously cheesed about being in that bouncy seat one night longer.

So, we did it. We finally pulled it together and Wow and I took apart the crib and lowered the mattress. The first night was, as expected, traumatic for all. Let's just say I was on the internet looking up Super Nanny's sleep technique for babies at 3:00 a.m. after having been up literally all night. We did make it through the night - kind of - and I prayed the next night would go better.

Night #2 - not quite as much crying, but we were still up 7 or 8 times.

Night #3 - Wow had had enough. And I had had enough of Wow telling me this is not the way to do this, so he said he would take care of it. The first time she cried, he pulled her out of bed and dropped her into bed with us. I wish I was kidding - this totally undid everything we had been through the first two nights!!!!

Night #4 - I took the reigns back - Wow wasn't happy with me, and listening to my baby cry seriously was breaking my heart too, but indeed, we were back at square one.

Night #5 - Looks like she's learning! She only woke up a couple of times and went right back to sleep (no more than 2 minutes crying each time)!

Night #6 - I think the utter exhaustion of not sleeping finally hit her and she slept through the night!!!!!!

Since then, she'll wake up once and then go back to sleep after I lay her back down, so I think she's getting the hang of it. I can't say I'm really sleeping any better - I keep waking up worried that she has her blanket on, that she's not suffocating in some corner of her crib, that she won't be permanently scarred from this whole experience - TWICE.

However, last night when Wow said he would put her to sleep, and he stood in there for 20 minutes only to have her start crying when he walked out, he finally admitted that maybe I did know what I was doing, and that a little bit of crying will teach her how to soothe herself and go back to sleep...

Now maybe we all can get some sleep!