Taking a Stand

Nora is developing and hitting milestones faster than I can keep up with.

Last week, she learned how to go from a lying down to a sitting up position. Last night, she pulled up to stand in her crib.

Of course, these sitting up from lying down and pulling up to stand milestones have something in common--they both take place in the crib. In other words, instead of sleeping, Nora is spending her time in her crib practicing her new skills.

Every night this week, when I've put her in her crib for bed, she's sat right up and played. After a 10-15 minute chunk of time, I'll usually go in there to do a "sleep reminder" and lay her back down, telling her "It's time for night-night" and I'll walk right back out.

Rinse, lather, repeat. For one to two hours. Then she finally passes out.

Last night, she only figured out how to stand up that one time. Tonight? Well, let's just say it's a good thing we dropped her crib mattress down a notch before she went to bed, because Miss Nora was having a ball standing up in there. A couple of times, she cried because once she was up, she wasn't quite sure how to get back down.

I know this nighttime routine is probably a phase, but maybe it's not. Maybe this is how toddlers "ready" themselves for sleep in their cribs. But how are we supposed to handle? Are we doing the right thing by going in there and doing the "sleep reminders"?

If she is playing in there for one to two hours, does that mean she suddenly doesn't need as much sleep anymore, and we should be putting her to bed later? Or is she just too distracted to sleep now that she is so excited about her new talent?

If it is a phase, how long can we expect this to last before the novelty wears off?

I have to say--right now, we think peeking in and seeing her standing up is the cutest.thing.ever. Especially because she's always so smiley and so stinkin' proud of herself. We just want to make sure she continues to get the sleep she needs, and that we don't create any bad habits.

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Crib Notes

I've mentioned before that Nora is a great sleeper. We are very, very lucky (so far, anyway), and we know it. We're grateful. We have no right to complain.

But the thing is that Nora is kind of particular about where she sleeps.

Up until now, we've been doing whatever works. We figured she was young enough that we weren't really setting bad "habits," and hell... when you have a newborn, you just kinda go with the flow.

So recently, we've been putting her to bed (swaddled) between 7:30-8:15 p.m. When I say "to bed," I mean that we put her in the Fisher Price Rock 'n' Play in our room. She'll sleep in there by herself until we go to bed between 10-11 p.m. Before our bedtime, sometimes we'll hear her fuss a little and we'll have to go in there and place her binky back into her mouth, or give her a little jiggle to settle her, but she generally goes right back to sleep without issue.

Then, she usually wakes sometime between 5-6 a.m. for a feeding. I reach over, pull her out of her bed, lay her in our bed next to me, nurse her, burp her, then put her back into her own bed. Then she'll continue to sleep until 8-9 a.m.

Heaven, I tell you. Heaven. But believe me, I keep waiting for this to end. I hope it doesn't, but I just feel like it's too good to be true.

For naps, she has been taking a really solid morning nap--like 2-3 hours. Most of the time, I recognize the signs that she's getting drowsy, and I put her in her vibrating bouncy seat or her swing to help her nod off completely. Once she's sleeping, I turn off the vibration or the swing and let her continue to nap in whichever seat she is in.

In the afternoon, she's less reliable. She'll definitely sleep, but the amounts of time vary and they'll generally be shorter in nature, like "cat naps." And she kind of sleeps wherever--bouncy seat, swing, car seat, on my chest, in the boppy, etc.

You're probably asking yourself, What is the problem?

Well, the problem is that she will NOT sleep in her crib. And given that I'm going back to work in a few weeks and she'll be napping in a pack 'n' play at the sitter's, I figure I really need to try to get her adjusted so that she'll still be able to get her naps in.

I think the problem is that the Rock 'n' Play, the bouncy, the swing, the car seat... all of them kind of "cuddle" her in a way. They make her feel cradled and cozy, almost like she is being held. The crib is flat and firm and BIG.

Over the past few weeks, I've made a few half-ass attempts at getting her to nap in her crib, but I was kind of casual about it and took whatever I could get. The longest stretch she ever went was 35 minutes. Not exactly a quality nap.

On Monday this week, I decided to give this some serious effort. I've been attempting to get her to take her morning naps in the crib. And, well, let's just say that the morning naps are no longer very solid. And Mommy barely has time to shower. Or do anything, really. (The house is a freakin' mess.)

Sleep training is hard, y'all.

On Monday, she actually slept in there for 50 minutes straight, which I thought was awesome for Day 1. Tuesday and this morning have not gone as well. For instance--right now, she has been in the crib for 30 minutes and I've already gone in there three times to "shush-pat" her back to sleep.

And because she's not napping as well, she's been crankier than usual. She's missing out on some of the sleep that she needs, and I feel like I really need to help her so that she can get this transition out of the way before I go back to work. And my hope is that if we reach success with naps in the crib, it'll then be easier to transition her to the crib for nighttime sleep as well. (Which we definitely plan to do before she hits 4 months--we're thinking maybe around Christmastime?)

So, I know. I know that when it comes to a 9-week-old baby, we kind of have it made. I'm feeling kind of ballsy even asking for any advice on the sleep subject. But does anyone have any suggestions for successful napping in the crib? How did you make the transition with your baby?

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child has been helpful for many things, but I don't find that it really provides methods to help out with some of the challenges. I did some Googling and found some explanation of The Baby Whisperer method, so I started trying that today. We'll see if I have any success with it. In the meantime, if you have experience with this, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Edited to add: I just don't know how persistent I'm supposed to be. It's now been a total of 56 minutes in her crib, and I've had to go in there another time to shush-pat her back to sleep. So her longest stretch of sleep for this 56-minute "nap" has probably been 15 minutes. Do I keep going and letting her sleep at these ridiculously short intervals, or am I supposed to give up at some point and do whatever I need to do to give her some solid sleep (swing, bouncy, holding her, etc.)?

Another update: At the 60-minute mark, she started screaming again. So that last stretch of sleep was like 4-5 minutes. I decided to give up and pull her out of the crib, because let's face it, we're not getting anywhere with this. And she is still exhausted. I have her with me now and she can barely keep her eyes open. What gives? :(

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