Yesterday was perfect. I felt it was a bit of, again, a miracle. Addie went down for her 1st nap within an hour of getting up at 6am. She slept an hour and then needed to go back down within an hour. This meant that both of her two naps were over by 10:45 am. We wrote off that first nap as her basically just going back to bed since she had had a rather rough night because I had put her to bed overtired. I had nursed her to sleep but she woke hourly due to being in that overtired state. The blessing in all of this was that her second nap (technically her third) could happen at a more normal time-- about 1 pm.
She took the 1pm nap and then also a one hour nap at 4:30. This 4:30 nap was needed. I get the feeling that she will fall into the 16% of six month olds that need this late afternoon shut eye.
She was playing happily until bedtime. I tried to put her down at 7:45 but she cried. So I brought her down because I figured the cry was more about the bedtime being too early rather than too late. Then I took her up at 8:15 and laid down with her. She nursed and then drifted off to sleep. And boy did she sleep!
She woke at 10:45 and I crawled into bed with her for the night. Then she only nursed one more time, I think, all night until she woke at about 6:30 am. Perfect!
It all went fabulously. I'm convinced that getting her to bed BEFORE she's too tired is the absolute key to avoiding crying.
That being said...today sucks so far. Today I thought I would try to stretch her morning wakeful period a little longer-- in hopes of getting it closer to two hours. She was sucking her fingers but still a bit interested in her surroundings. Also, she hadn't made any fussy sounds. So after an hour and a half of being up I bundled her up and took her up. She cried after a couple minutes so I headed back up and nursed her to be sure she was full. I saw a big yawn and glossy eyes. She's tired, right? I laid her back down and she is currently upstairs crying (I'm crying too, in the basement).
I'm turning it around in my head. I'm confused. Did I put her down too early? That just can't be, right? She yawned. That's the beginning of the really sleepy stage. She had been sucking her fingers for at least a half an hour. I just don't know. If I had to guess, I would say, based on how long she has stayed up after waking the past four days that she is tired. The only glitch is that last night was the best night's sleep she's had in awhile. But then again, she went to sleep at 8:30 and woke at 6:30am. So, really, I'm pretty sure I kept her up too long. I was in the middle of cooking my husband's birthday breakfast and paid as much attention toher every move as I could while not burning his food (which I still did, by the way).
So, the inevitable has happened. The tears. I knew in the back of my head that something would eventually interfere with getting Addie down before she was overtired. And, to avoid wrecking her entire schedule and having an overly tired baby, I would need to let her be and let her cry. I knew it. And so it is.
So it's my mess up. And she's paying for it. Almost half an hour of crying so far. I'm not sure I can or should keep going. I'm going to go the full hour. Because I really trust Dr Marc. It seems strange to trust a stranger that wrote a book, I know. But I also know that my baby who napped 25-40 minutes a day now naps 3-4 hours a day and had her first good sleep in ages last night. And I know that if I go up now I'm going to mess up the week of getting this girl on a schedule. And by mess up, I mean FURTHER mess up, as my first mistake was having her get overtired.
This is all live and learn. I'm going to try the full hour cry that Dr Marc suggests. I may regret it and never do it again. I may never have to do it again. The handful of trusted friends who let their babies cry said it happened maybe a day or two. Ugh. I feel literally physically sick at that thought! I need to stop thinking about that. I can survive this one hour. Addie can survive it. I'm not sure what the rest of the day holds though.
I know this can be done without tears. At least for one day. If this cry doesn't correct the schedule that we worked so hard to get to then I will have to go back to square one. And try it again. With no more tears perhaps.
I gotta go pray.
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