Big Girl Bed

Our big girl slept in her bed for the first time last Monday at exactly 7 weeks old (11-7)….isn’t she so sweet?!?!

We had been having night time issues and I never thought we would actually get her in her own bed.  She HATED to lay flat and everytime we tried to lay her in her bed she would SCREAM.  She was still sleeping in our room in her swing…oops!  But you do what you gotta do when momma needs some sleep too. :)  She was so tired after school and crashed on us in the evening.  She was OUT so we thought why not??  We swaddled her tightly (She had not been swaddled in some time since she slept in her swing but her arms flail so much she would wake herself up all the time--she is one BUSY little girl) and put her in her bed.  She slept soundly until 3 that morning! :)  Well it didn’t work the next night.  Didn’t want to push it too much though, take it one night at a time.

I thought she would be a year old and still sleeping in our room (partly because I liked the comfort of having her there and being able to check on her constantly and know she was still breathing and ok and partly because she would NEVER let us lay her in her bed).  We had even gone so far as to buy one of those wedges that is supposed to help and a new fun mobile (that spins, lights up, and sings) in addition to the things she already had on her bed…still no luck!  We use a sound machine and a night light in there for her (and have 2 different monitors in there for peace of mind for mommy and daddy!:)).

I had started trying out her bed with her while I was still home during the day though (I was afraid she was like her mommy and scared of the dark-ha! And would not sleep in there because of that)…well she was having none of it during the day either!

She slept in our room the rest of the week and Friday we decided to try it again (in case it took a while and we got little sleep at least it would be Saturday).  Worked like a charm—found out the key was to make sure she was out HARD then get her swaddled and in her bed.  She has slept in there since.  Hopefully I am not jinxing us, but she has slept through the night several times and has only waken up a couple of nights between 3-3:45 for the paci and goes back down until 5.  That is when I get up to feed her anyways so it works out great!  Sometimes it takes us a while to get her to sleep, but is worth that extra time spent getting her down in order to get more sleep at night!  She started out as a horrible sleeper (up every 3 hours to eat—then it would take another hour to get her down so by the time I would get her to sleep and get myself to sleep I would only get like an hour of sleep before she would wake up to eat again—AND I spent many nights sleeping on the floor rocking her bouncy and holding the paci in to get her to sleep for any small amount of time.

Hopefully we are in a good pattern because I am loving it! :)