We had a great night last night. Lately the sleeping has gotten better and I have been able to see signs of drowsiness before bedtime. I don't know if all the stars in the sky were aligned or this is the new sleeping arrangements, but last night I got sleep. The kind of sleep that I can actually function with the next day...and go back to work with. I bathed Isabel at 6:30, fed her at 6:45, and she began showing signs of sleepiness at 7:00. So I put her in her crib and not 5 minutes later, she was sound asleep. She slept from 7:00pm to 1:00am (6 hours). So I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up at 1:00 to feed her. Then she went back down without any problems from 1:20am to 5:40 am. (another 4 hours and 20 minutes). Right now it is 6:25 am and she is taking a cat nap in the swing. I am so proud of her and cross my fingers that this is not just a fluke.
In the meantime, napping during the day is still a working progress. She is not a big napper in her crib. Sleeps great at time as you can read above and goes to bed in the crib self-soothing herself to sleep, the during the day it is a different story. She really likes her swing, as I have mentioned in a previous post. I am still enforcing at least one nap a day to be in the crib, but the others I am letting slide. I've realized that at 8 weeks old, the most important thing is that she naps during the day to allow her to be rested at night. I read that if she gets optimal nap time then she is prone to sleeping better at night time and possibly all night through. I thought I would put a picture of my precious Isabel at nap time.
After fifteen minutes of soothing (rocking, patting, sucking on paci). I put her down drowsy but awake, like the books say; and yes, I let her cry for 5 minutes. Then started the cycle again. After the third cycle, she finally fell asleep...but only for 45 minutes. This is a great picture of what torture it was to see her crying in the crib. She is even cute when she cries.
