Her Own Crib

We moved Macie into her own crib on February 17th.  

This took quite a bit of preparation.  You see, when you go on bed rest 3 months before the baby's due, you don't have her room ready yet.  And then if you end up in the hospital a couple of weeks later and have the baby 2 months early, you really don't have time to plan a nursery.  And when your baby is in the hospital for the first month of her life, the nursery is just not a priority.  And then when she comes home, and settles into your room, and ends up having bad reflux and needs to sleep at a big incline... well, the nursery plans just fall to the background as life goes on.

But then, when the reflux starts to subside... When your baby has decided to stop nursing... When you realize that you really want your room back, and wonder if your baby might sleep better given her own space...  Well, then you plan a nursery pretty fast.

I found a set that I really liked on Pottery Barn Kids, and then I asked my sister for her advice... She's much better at putting together rooms than I am.  She asked me a ton of questions and then gave me some excellent ideas.  I did end up buying from Pottery Barn Kids, but a different set that is a little less busy.  We love it.

As soon as the bedding came, it went on the bed.  The walls still need to be painted and I'm working on putting the rest of the room together, still.  But, we moved Macie into her crib the very next day.

I geared myself up for a battle.  It took me many, many long and failed attempts to move Ephram into his crib.  And he was still sleeping with us during part of the night at least 50% of the time at 2.  With Ephram, he would always cry and cry and never stop crying, no matter which of the 6 methods I tried (including 2 of my own invention.)  He would cry and scream for hours...  so hard that he would make himself sick.  

Now, Macie has always been a better sleeper than Ephram was as a baby, but even so I didn't expect what happened.

The night that we started in her crib, I went through her bedtime routine with her, ending in a bottle.  I set her down in her bed, she was barely awake.  She went to sleep without a single cry.  She slept for 7.5 hours, at which point she woke up and screamed bloody murder for 2 hours.  I also noticed a brand new tooth that next day.

The second day she was more apprehensive.  It took two and a half hours to get her transitioned and resting in that crib, but that was so much faster than it ever was with Ephram!  After that, she slept through until 7am.  This was especially remarkable because Ephram, with whom she shares a bedroom wall, was awake with night terrors throughout the night.  We're talking screaming, crying, pounding and kicking.  And Macie slept through it all.

The third day, I stayed in her room for 15 minutes after laying her down.  I didn't talk to her or touch her, I was just there.  It was enough for her, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.  She slept until 11pm, at which point she woke up crying for 30 minutes, and then fell back asleep until 8:30 the next morning!

The fourth night, she went straight to sleep without any help from me.  But she woke up at 11pm so heavily congested that she couldn't breathe.  It ended up to be the flu.  I moved her out of her room and back in with us for five days while she worked through the fever and congestion.  I was very nervous about transitioning her back to her crib after interrupting the process so early.

The first night I put her back in her crib, she smiled at me, rolled onto her tummy and went to sleep.  She slept through the night without waking.

And that is pretty much what has happened since.  She wakes in the middle of the night about once a week.  Half of the time she puts herself back to sleep, and half of the time I go help her.  She usually wakes up between 7-7:30 in the morning. 

With Ephram I heard from so many people about how sleep success depended on the parenting tactic.  And I kept telling people that my baby just didn't require much sleep compared to others, and that he was just being him.  So now that I have an excellent sleeper, I feel somewhat vindicated.

So for those of you out there that have had a hard time with a baby, like I have, and worry about having another because you just can't have two kids up all night, (like I did,) take heart.  Maybe your second baby will be a wonderful sleeper all on their own.  And besides, sleep difficulties for a year or two (even though they feel terrible in the middle of it,) are totally worth the joy of having another child in your life.

Even Ephram sleeps beautifully, (now... for him.)