No-Cry Sleep Solution

Two days of logging are complete!  I'm rather proud of myself for sticking to it!  Of course, I have 8 more days to go until the first review and tweaking of the routines.  

Here's what Day 1 looked like: 

You'll have to pardon my photo layout..I'm new to this whole blogging thing and they don't want to go where I want them to go.  As you can see, IJ took one nap which met her "nap quota" for the day.  Then she slept for almost ten hours at night, but she cried in her sleep due to teething-related runny nose, I suspect.  She had one full blown wake up.  We've been following the initial bedtime routine of bath, play and rock/bottle-down after Jeopardy, at 8pm.  I can't seem to get away from the Jeopardy thing-- I think she might think of Alex Trebek as an Uncle when she is older!  I also made some eating/poop notes just to see if digestion is affecting any of this.

Wow was Day 2 different!  Her front tooth is making its way in and all the runny nose that goes with it made it really hard to sleep.  After hearing her cry every hour during hte night of Day 1, I was eagerly awaiting morning nap.  But it came and went as the coughing just didn't allow her to sleep.  The second I laid her down the post-nasal drip began and she was awake in ten minutes, frustrated with her body.  The afternoon nap went the same.  So we put her in the car to go to the store with the expectation that sitting upright would allow her to sleep and she would be asleep in a heartbeat.  No such luck!  That little girl was content as can be, chatting up a storm in the back seat!  She looked like she was recovering from pneumonia as she was so tired, but she was in really good spirits-- even when I made my hubby take a detour home so we could try to spot  Clive Owen filming his new movie, Trusted...or Trust...or something lihe that!  No luck on that front either, but it was neat to see all the tents and the film crew. 

All in all, yesterday was a good reminder about the "best laid plans" and how they go awry sooner or later.  It reminded me that this routine is helpful, but primarily I must meet my daughter where she is.  This is not about controlling her sleep, but setting up the conditions in which to make sleep possible and inviting for her.  It doesn't always mean that she'll welcome the invitation, whether it's due to the latest runny nose, a growth spurt or something I can't even detect. 

I'm looking forward to the next 8 days of logging and the review on Day 10!  I'll keep posting the logs every couple days-- but will probably leave most of the commentary until the Day 10 Tweak.

God's Promises

I just read a nice phrase that I found in, of all things, a Christmas catalog.  It reads, "God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, nor sun without rain.  But He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears and light for the way."

That's good to know.  Today we went to the doctor's and discovered that our little Abby-Jo has decided not to stay with us.  Or perhaps God decided for her.  The doctor called it "genetics" and said there's nothing we can do about it.  I knew the second I saw the ultrasound screen.  My eyes combed it for that magical little heartbeat that I was so amazed to see with our first little girl.  Our eyes filled with tears when we heard that first heartbeat.  Today our eyes filled with tears for another reason.  The heartbeat was incredibly slow, almost undetectable, and Abby was small...too small...even for someone who is supposed to only be the size of a kidney bean right now. 

So, it looks as if she is leaving us.  And we are incredibly sad. 

All the other goals can wait.  So can the nap routine.  Right now, we just need to say goodbye.