Sleep

I am so thankful for how well Annabelle has been going to sleep. It's just so amazing that I can't help but be amazed every night! We give her a bath, dry her hair (so she doesn't freeze), put on diaper and PJs, lower the lights and read, and then she signs "milk" when she's ready to nurse. I nurse her for a little bit, give her fair warning (Okay, mommy is going to count to three and then milkies are all done!), and then I lay her down in her bed. She usually cries for less than 10 seconds, and I start stroking her hair and singing "Amazing Grace" quietly to her. She calms down almost immediately. After a few verses of the song, I move a little bit away from her bed and just sit there quietly. She sometimes reaches for me, but instead of holding her or picking her up, I just hold her hand. She rubs her eyes and ears for awhile, and then drifts off to sleep quietly, usually within 10 minutes or less. It.is.awesome. She's usually down for the count by 7:30.

She stays asleep most nights until 11:30, and then, ON THE DOT she wakes up. I don't get it! I stopped nursing her at that time a few weeks ago, but she still wakes up. She either will go right back to sleep if we just go in and lay her down/sing to her, but sometimes she will stay up for upwards of an hour! I just don't understand it...totally perplexed.

Once she is back to sleep, the rest of the night is a crap shoot. Sometimes she'll sleep until 4:30 or so before waking up again, other times she's up around 2:30. Whenever she wakes up next I nurse her, and usually bring her to bed with us because I'm too tired to care about anything else. She sleeps with us until she wakes up for the day. Usually she stays asleep the whole time, but sometimes she nurses a few times since I'm right next to her.

My goal for the next month is to keep her in her bed for the majority of the night. Hopefully I can just bite the bullet and do it. In the middle of the night though, it's so hard to stick to a plan instead of just doing what is easy!

We've obviously had highs and lows, but I wouldn't change for a minute the way that we have parented Annabelle at night. I wouldn't go back and let her CIO from an early age, and I certainly wouldn't night wean her any sooner. I have loved our middle of the night nursing sessions--such a peaceful, quiet time...just her, me, and God.

I am thankful that my baby is sleeping much more regularly now, but I really am going to miss snuggling her at night once she's sleeping through the night in her own bed. For now, I will soak it up while I can!