Olivia’s New Trick
I’m not sure I like this one too much…
She’s learned to take off her own diaper, it’s actually quite comical. I notice her starting to grab at the tabs, and I tell her, “Don’t do it, DON’T do it!” And she just smiles shakes her head no, and Wham! That diaper is off!.
CAUGHT!
Up and Down
How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was good, Olivia’s first! It was pretty much the same as every year, busy. We did John’s side of the family in the morning/afternoon, then headed over to my mom’s. Olivia ate everything! Mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turkey, stuffing, the works! She’s gotten really good at eating real food, it’s so funny to see her chew with her little crooked mouth. She’s got those to big teeth on the bottom, but she doesn’t even really use them to chew anything up. Anyways, she had a good first Thanksgiving.
It was also nice to have the 5 day weekend, we used the time off to do some sleep training with Olivia. I think I mentioned in a previous post how she’s been sleeping in our bed more often then not lately. And even though neither of us (me, John or Olivia) mind that much, we know it’s not a good habit to get into, especially with a new baby coming. Oh, wait, let me back up a little bit…
Wednesday afternoon Olivia decided all of a sudden that she doesn’t want to be swaddled any more! Omg, my baby isn’t a little swaddled baby any more! I know, I know, she is already 8 months old, but she still loved her swaddle. She wouldn’t sleep without it! But all of a sudden, she was just done. So now she just gets laid down, like a big girl. Which means that we had to move the mattress in her crib down so she can’t fall out. Now that was traumatic, for me. It’s not a newborn crib anymore.
Alright, back to the sleep training. So Wednesday night she went to bed in her crib, unswaddled. She woke up at one, I fed her, I burped her back to sleep and put her back in her own bed. She woke up again at two, and I tried rocking her back to bed. Okay, so I have to admit that part of this whole thing was because John had the 24-hr stomach flu Wednesday (full on projectile vomit and everything! Gross!!), so I decided to sleep on the couch, so really there was no bed for me to take Olivia back to. So she woke up at two, I tried to rock her back to sleep, but she wasn’t having it. I knew she was just being a pill, cuz I’d hold her, she’d be fine, but if I tried to put her down that awful screaming would start. So finally, after 30 minutes of that, I had to go with the tough love approach. I put her back in her crib and let her scream it out. An hour and 20 minutes later, tears on both sides, she FINALLY fell asleep. It was pure hell. HELL. Every minute felt like an hour. I was laying on the couch in tears, just praying that she would just give up and fall sleep. Thursday night, I was back in my bed, and she only cried for 45minutes, still every minute of it totally painful.
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I actually started writing that on Dec.2 (today is what? The 11th?) I know, I lag at keeping up on this. But anyways, to finish it up, every night after that got better, each night she cried a little less. Now she’s in her crib every night, by herself. She’s even gotten good at putting herself to sleep – she’s especially good at it during nap time. I just lay her down, put a blanket on her, and walk out of the room, I usually don’t even hear a peep out of her. She’s such a good girl.
