The Battle for Sleep

Ariella is going to turn 7 months next week and is still waking up at least 2 or 3 times a night.  While some nights don’t seem that bad, we have both gone through the flu and colds now and those nights are very tough indeed.  Since we are all feeling better, Derek and I have decided to start trying to let her ‘cry it out’.  Last night was the first try.

Her nighttime schedule consists of the normal things, a bath around 7 or 7:30, depending on how sleepy she seems to be, a few short books, nursing and then into the crib for bed.  She usually gets herself pretty sleepy during the nursing, but last night was a totally different story.  She was not sleepy at all and was wiggling around her crib instead.  Of course when she realized where she was and what we wanted to outcome to be, she started to cry and tantrum.

So we alternated going in about every 5 minutes or so and in about 20 minutes, she was fast asleep.  And she didn’t wake up all night!  She was up at 5:30am to eat and then decided that since she was awake all ready that she may as well stay that way.

I am so confused!  I wish I knew what it was that made her stay quiet and not hungry all night long.  I did give her cereal before her bath last night, but I’ve done that before with the same twice a night feeding result.  Nothing is consistent!

Anyway, now that we have begun the journey into crying it out, we’re staying on that course until it either works, or we (I) can’t take the crying every night anymore.  I’m really hoping that this method works and we can all get some better sleep at night.