More on sleep

So if you recall from my previous post, we (i.e. mostly me at the moment, due to Luke working on the deck) are working on getting Raegan to start self soothing and putting herself to sleep at night. I learned in the infant development class I took at K-State that you are basically there to ask how high when your newborn says jump. But once they are able to understand object permanence (that something can be gone and still exist) you can start to let them cry a little bit. Raegan is demonstrating some very obvious object permanence. Now when we hide something under a blanket or behind us, she goes after it whereas before she would be instantly distracted. This coincided beautifully with the beginning of summer, which means that if she kept me up a lot for a few nights I could always nap during the afternoon.

I started Monday, and it was rough. Tuesday was a little better. And last night, we hit the jackpot, with maybe 5 minutes of crying/fussing, then sleep. And she slept from 8:30-2:30. Apparently, "sleeping through the night" for an infant is considered to be 5 hours in a row, so we're golden. For a couple weeks now she's been waking up only twice in the night, and last night was only once.

Everything I read said have a consistent bedtime routine, which was always hard before with classes and homework and bell choir. Now, we start about 7:45 - bath, books, nurse, cuddle. Then she gives everyone kisses goodnight (or gets them if she's not in the kissing mood), then it's off to bed. I probably shouldn't be bragging about how well last night went - I'm probably jinxing tonight. But I just have to say hallelujah, praise Jesus. As much as I loved rocking Raegan to sleep every night, I was so worried that I would have a 2 or 3 year old that had to be rocked and patted to sleep. Hopefully this will continue to go well.

Nap this afternoon went really well also. I snuggled her up for a couple minutes, then put her in her crib, gave her Cookie Monster, and left. After 3 minutes or so of fussing (not even crying) she was out like a light. And is still out an hour and fifteen minutes later. I'm hopeful..... :)