On Becoming an Expert

When I was Pregnant, I read a funny article that poked fun at the 476 Kajillion ways to sleep train a baby. And I thought, "It must be impossible; I'll play it by ear." And in doing so, we're sleeping pretty well around here. The average is 11-7 with a few variations: 10:30-7:30, 10:15-6 and so on...but today was a first that I plan to duplicate tomorrow. Scarlett went down for a nap completely awake in her crib and was sound asleep in 10 minutes. It was only a 40 minute nap, but it was such an exciting time! I recently started scouring sleep-training material online as well as the book On Becoming Baby Wise. I don't care for some of the opinions expressed in that book, namely the one that states, (paraphrase) "if you think nursing your child whenever she cries is showing her some special kind of love, it's not. You're suppressing a cry, not treating the issue." I reserve the right to nurse on demand, and the fact that this book sees it as a parenting flaw kind of makes me want to chuck it out the window of a moving car. But I love my state too much to litter. 

I'm working on nighttime crib--an idea made to sound quite crucial by one of the sources-- but after 20 minutes she is more awake than before, and Texan says, "Ok, Mommy. Bring me my baby." He hates to hear her fuss at me and prefers to snuggle with her while I do my evening chores. So, we'll see how long it takes to get her to go down in her crib instead of her bassinet. But since the bassinet is going so well at night, I'm happy with just crib napping for now.

Naturally, I photographed the moment. And don't worry, The monitor stayed in the crib because 1) she doesn't know how to use her hands and was swaddled up tight 2) I checked on her every 5 minutes because of my sheer joy! 3) There's no dangerous cord. 

It wasn't one of those naps where I went and had "me time" and pretended I was on vacation. It was an experiment, people! A closely-monitored experiment.

Here's an interesting moment we had the other night. She just wanted to snuggle, so I wrapped her up in my sling and made dinner while she hung out--quite literally. She even nursed for the second half of the cooking process! And yes, we are in our pajamas. That's because I shower after my afternoon workout and if I have nowhere to be, I put on clean pajamas at one o'clock....because I can, that's why. And she's in her pajamas because, well, she's a baby. And sometimes it's fun to just hang out in your pjs instead of getting dressed.

Speaking of getting dressed, we went to church as a family this Sunday for the first time. Texan left us home each Sunday (spare one or two) and now he was able to bring his girls. Scarlett was quite a hit with the elderly in the church. We have to walk down the hallway where they meet for Sunday school and you would've thought they'd never seen such beauty--let's face it, they probably hadn't! She slept through praise and worship in my arms and woke up 10 minutes into service quite cantankerous. So I took her to the cry room and nursed and changed her. She also nursed (slept, really) through Sunday school. Thank God for my nursing cover. I would've been hiding in the cry room all day without it. 

Since Scarlett usually sleeps until 11 or 11:30, church (which is 9:15-12) was a huge inconvenience for her. I'm sure once she gets older and her patterns become more normal she'll be less of a zombie during church. By then I'll feel fine leaving her in nursery. But at this point she can't be soothed by a bottle when she's that tired. Don't tell Baby Wise, they'll say I'm perpetuating poor habits. How presumptuous of my baby to want to be soothed! The madness! *grumble grumble*

Oh, her church dress. Black tutu around the bottom and the black and white pattern up top...a drop-waist...black tights that are a little too big because her legs are so tiny! Yikes, I wanted to just eat her up. I'll get a good picture next time she wears it.