So What

I think I am just too darn old for sleep-training.

Monday night was kind of OK.  Because I nursed Sophie to sleep while John and I caught up on some of our DVR recordings (oh, the list of recordings!  weeks and weeks behind!).  So then when I finally tried to put Sophie to bed (around 11-ish?), yeah, she woke up.  I let her cry for the requisite 20 minutes, cuddled her for a while, then lay her down--and she magically rolled over and went right to sleep.  Yes!  But, due to the extra-long cuddle, it was around midnight before the magic happened, and then she woke up around 6am.  And I brought her to bed and nursed her.  And all was mostly good.

Well, Tuesday night I decided that I really needed to start focusing on getting Sophie to bed at a more decent hour.  I mean, holding her while watching TV for two hours is not conducive to actually training her to sleep in her own bed, you know?  So, I managed to lay down with her to nurse in my little air mattress around 9:30.  Next thing I knew, it was midnight, and she was still snuggled up next to me.  Whoops.  So, I tried to put her down, and then the chaos started.  After a few cry-it-out attempts, I decided that I had pretty much screwed things up by letting her fall asleep with me in the first place (and John was on his way to bed, and yes, you CAN hear her through the floors of the house!), so I just brought her back to our air mattress, and we both slept a nice, peaceful night. 

Have I mentioned that it's just really, really COLD in my den?  I don't remember it being so cold when we used it as our family room, but Tuesday night in particular I was freezing my butt off--and this is with wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt (with hood!) to bed.  I even double-checked with John that the heating vents were actually OPEN.  Yes, indeed.  And I wonder if it's not helping the baby sooth herself to sleep so well, either.  (Mostly, I think, um, MY FAULT, tho!)

Anyway, last night it was even colder outside than the night prior--and I just couldn't face it again.  So, I decided to see just how she would do in her own bed in our own WARM room again.  Again, I nursed her around 9:30.  Again, I woke up around midnight with her still in bed with me.  Again--whoops.  This time she went straight back to sleep when I put her in her crib.  But then she woke up at 2 (or was it 3?), and since now I'm back to that old problem of Sophie waking my husband, I just brought her to bed with me to cuddle.  I know I got her back to bed at one point, but then she woke up again--and she was pretty much in bed with me for the rest of the night. Warm!  But baby not in her own bed!  Dangit!

Sleep training:  FAIL. 

ME, not the baby.

I guess the one good thing about all of this is that we have definitely night-weaned.  When she has been waking up, I've been able to get her to go back to sleep--albeit with cuddling in bed with me--without nursing.  I think that I am going to take that as a SLIGHT success.

Just a few more days of winter break for the older three kids, and then the chaos of getting-ready-for-school mornings start again.  I had really hoped to make more progress by then, but I don't think that's going to happen now.  Again, I think I'm just too old for this @#$%.


Oh--and Keith turned 11 yesterday.  ELEVEN!  I am just not ready for my little big guy to start middle school next year, you know?  *sigh*