Rough, Rough Night

The time has come. Kate is 6 and 1/2 months old and it is time to teach her to sleep in her crib and to sleep through the night. I picked tonight to let her “cry it out” because well, tonight is as good as any night. There really isn’t a night where I am going to WANT to hear my sweet baby girl cry herself to sleep. The sooner we start the sooner we get it over with, right? I am hopeful that she will only cry for a night or two and then get used to the routine so that by this time next week she will be sleeping like a pro. That is my hope. Tonight I put her in crib after going through our bedtime routine – just in a different order. I nursed her, gave her a bath, gave her a lotion massage, put on her P.J.’s, read the scriptures, and said a prayer. Then I placed her in her crib with her favorite doll. She didn’t mid too much at first because she had her doll. But three minutes or so later and she was crying. So, I did what my pediatrician said and waited five minutes. I went in to re-assure her and let her know that I was still here, that she was ok, and to tell her I loved her. It took no more than 10 seconds. I left and she cried for five more minutes and then was dead silent. I, of course, freaked out and immediately thought the worst (she vomited, choked on it, and is now suffocating). So even though my pediatrician said not to go in and check on her, I turned off all of the lights and crawled halfway into her room to listen for her breathing. Thank goodness – she was OK! She did great – slept for two hours. Then at 10:00 she woke up crying. I wait five minutes to see if she will calm herself down and go back to sleep but she doesn’t. I go in her room and again let her know that I love her, she is just fine, and to sleep well. Again – I was in there no longer than 10 minutes. Well, here we are at 10:47 and she is still crying. I feel like the biggest jerk in the world and am trying to remind myself to stay strong so that I can teach her this important lesson. I am blogging so that I can keep myself busy and keep myself from going in there and scooping her up in my arms. Please tell me it gets better and that Kate will still feel loved and be happy. Please tell me she won’t remember this tomorrow but that she will learn how to put herself to sleep. Ok, 10:50 and I think she may have fallen back asleep. Is it Wednesday yet?? I just want to hold my baby. Maybe I will be lucky and she will sleep the rest of the night =)

On a different note, I have been wanting to write down the words that Kate is saying the se days – it seems like she is learning so quickly! Kate’s vocab includes:

-hi

-dada/mama

-up

-yeah

-and tonight when James was saying goodbye she said “buh” like she was saying bye to him

She has also learned how to “talk” into the phone. I use my old cell phone and hold it up to my ear and pretend I am talking to her and use other words that she recognizes. Then I put the phone to her ear and she will babble in it for a second or two before putting the phone in her mouth.

Kate is still working on crawling. She is getting close – she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth and she rolls all over the place. I have a feeling that she will be crawling any day now.

She figured out today how to turn the light to the basement on and off! She used to just be able to turn it off but now she can flip the switch up and turn it on. In addition, she seems to understand what she is doing – that by flicking the switch up she turns the light on and down she turns the light off.

I am so proud of her and can’t believe how much I love her. It is 11:09 now and I still don’t hear her, so I am going to check on her again.