Crying it Out

Last weekend was horrible. Anna's sleep was frequently interrupted and we were very tired as a result. We shared this with one of the doctors wives at Lisa's work Christmas party (in January), and she began lecturing us on letting her cry it out, that we need to teach her to fall asleep on her own.

As you might imagine, I was in no mood to hear that we were doing the wrong thing as parents. We have tried some of the 'let her cry' in the past, and with some success. With Anna's congestion, however, she's woken more frequently, and has had to have saline shot up her nostrils.

In the process of getting over her cold, she unlearned some of her good sleep habits, although we had never got to the point of having her fall asleep on her own.

This weekend Lisa has been determined to change that.

Friday night, we let her cry, off and on, with periodic reassurance, for over an hour. Saturday night it was down to about 40 minutes. Today we tried to do the same with naps and has success early, but our attempts to get her to sleep on her own failed each time we tried, until we had to leave for Brittany's graduation party.

At the party, she was a perfect baby - no fussing, very little screaming, and she enjoyed all who held her.

She slept some each way in the car, of course, which meant she wasn't completely wiped out by the end of the day.

She had a great time during tubby time, Lisa rocked her for a bit, and she fell asleep inside of five minutes after Lisa put her down.

We hope the good work continues, but in the meantime, here's Lisa, Anna, and Lisa's grandmother Hattie during the party today.

Now that I know that at least Kay is reading...

Ok, ok, I know I'm supposed to be writing this for Anna. Trouble is, it's hard to get motivated for that since she doesn't even know what a letter is. Fortunately, Lisa's Aunt Kay said she tunes in from time to time. It's nice to know there's an audience.

Anna and Lisa are down for a nap after a morning in Janesville nixing our new auto's extended warranty. We took her to her first restaurant in a couple of months, since it's generally easier to get take out. The two previous restaurant adventures, an Indian buffet and Sala Thai, became a bit stressful when she began to fuss. No such trouble today.

Sleep has been much improved in the past few weeks, although she still likes to play the wake up game a couple of times in the evening before settling in. Last night, however, we battled her stuffy nose with saline spray a couple of times during the night and dealt with the crying and sniffling afterward. By 4:30, Lisa had had enough and Anna and I retired to the recliner so that mom could rest properly. Turns out Anna and I did pretty well for ourselves out there, too, as she slept till 8:15. That was when she turned big ol' eyes upward toward Dad, as if to say, "Oh, you've been my mattress for the evening? Now what have you got for me?"

What we had for her was a second attempt at cereal. This time she did pretty well and swallowed the majority of it. I still think the spoon is the main attraction, but so long as she gets a little iron, she can play with the spoon a bit.

Here's photographic evidence (actually, this is from the first attempt on Christmas day - had a video, but it wouldn't post!)