Four in the morning is a very dark and lonely time to listen to the baby cry. In an attempt to reclaim the glorious days on which Katie slept from 10 to 8 with hardly a peep, I am trying out a combo of the no-cry sleep solution and the cry-it-out method. Which seems utterly ridiculous at the moment, but I'm sure it made sense at some sane hour.
What this means, is instead of a repeat of last night, which consisted of me trying at 9 to get Katie in bed, succeeding at 10, then getting up every hour to hour and a half, breastfeeding for 10 minutes, and going back to bed after depositing a not-sleeping-but-willing-to-pretend Kate Monster back in her crib. It was a long night. At 6:30 in the morning, I prodded Bobby and simply said, "Your turn." He mumbled and rolled over, so I poked him again and said, "I mean now. Baby. Crying. Get."
He brought her back to me a couple hours later and told me she demanded boobs with the quickness. I got up to face the day and began searching my books for a solution. (I'd read them while pregnant.)
So, what we're trying is this: moved her official bedtime to 8:00 from 9-10ish. She gets food at 7, bath at 7:30, then nurse (with "lovey" and lullabies) and bed (keeping "lovey" and lullabies). If she wakes up, I'm going in, cuddling her until she calms, putting her down, and leaving for 5 minutes. I got her down at about 8:45 and she slept until 11. Then, and when she woke at 12:10, 1, and 2:15, she went back to sleep fairly easily, after only 2 comfort cycles. This one? She's been up since 3:30. I think I may give in and nurse. It's still better than the nursing every hour we did before. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier.
