Back on the topic of today’s earlier post, a gal on the September Mommies group posted this article about one family’s struggle to help their son sleep through the night. The methods sound similar to those of the No Cry Sleep Solution (which I’ve been *meaning* to re-read), and I decided to give it a try.

First of all, Maya DID eat earlier than usual today, and at this particular meal, ate a full 4 ounces of peach-mango-applesauce, followed by what’s I’d estimate to be at LEAST 8 ounces of oatmeal. After that, she had a bath, a good poop (poor kid had been fighting for it all day), and a change of clothing. She played around for a little while, then it got to be about that time…so she nursed, and as she started to nod off, I told her it was time for bed.

This was 7:30pm.

We walked to the bedroom, and I laid her down in the crib. As is her norm, she started to cry and fuss. I talked to her gently, telling her that it was night-night time, and offered her a pacifier. Bingo. She went to sleep.

8:00pm…baby awake.

I went to the crib’s side and coaxed her, stroked her back, gave her some cold meds (we’ve both been itchy/sneezy today — allergies?), and gave her some motrin when she started pulling on her ears (could be teething, could be ears - note to self: ask doctor next week).

An HOUR later, she’s finally back to sleep. My back is a bit sore from bending over the crib.

Surely, this can work. After all, at her grandparents’ house, she’s learned that when it’s between 7-8pm, it’s time to sleep, and she does so with only a few minutes of fussing (that used to be worse). She can learn to do the same here, right?

It’s not that I mind cosleeping. Really, there’s very little that could possibly be more charming that waking up to a smiling baby grabbing your nose and waiting for you to go “HONK!” in return. She laughs at me, and we slowly start the day. Just the same, she rolls into me, and I really would love to sleep on my back…or my belly…or any other way than on my side. Is that too much to ask?

We’ll see how this works.