Crying It Out 2009 - Night 2

I made it through the second night of pushing Harper to sleep through the night. Last night she cried intermittently for 20 minutes. That is seven minutes less than the night before, but, again, who's counting? Seriously... this is what I'm picturing in my head:


But, as I should have learned with Z, children do not follow linear trend lines. So, I'll hope for just a couple more nights of crying. I knew I was dreading it, but I forgot that feeling of lying in bed while your child cries. It is really difficult. I doubt my decision and almost get up two or three times. I start to think, I'll just go look at her or I'll get up to go pee to distract myself. But in my heart, I know that if I get out of bed, and especially if I go look at her, then I'll want to intercede. Some moms use the pacifier to ease the child back to sleep. With Harper (and with Z), I found that putting the pacifier in woke them up more than it settled them down. So I just lie there wishing it was over, praying she'll stop crying. It's amazing how long those twenty-something minutes seem.

It will be such a huge Mother's Day gift to start sleeping seven or more hours at night. It really feels like we're rounding the corner on the newborn phase. Once I get more sleep and then when we switch to a four hour feeding cycle, I really start to feel normal again. I'm thankful to be moving forward but also thankful that I enjoyed this early phase so much with Harper. It really did go by fast.