The Sleeping

Reflecting....

Phase I
The first four weeks of EG's little life she co-slept with us. She snuggled up to M and was slid over to me to nurse and then slid back to sleep with M. I will never regret co-sleeping with her when she was so tiny. It just felt right to have that little animal nested in between us.

Phase II
We moved to formula and the co-sleeper. EG would sleep for about 3 hours and then eat, rock, and then back in the co-sleeper.

Phase III
The move to the crib. As an infant, she slept like jesus, arms straight out to her sides and the co-sleeper wasn't wide enough to accommodate that position. So, then it was feed, rock, and put down in the spacious crib. This is where the 7:40 p.m. started. She slept well and mainly woke to eat. Around 10 weeks, she slept all night for about two weeks.

7:40 p.m. (DST) / 6:40 p.m. (CST)
At seven weeks old EG started predictably falling asleep at 7:40 p.m. Feed her, rock her, and she would pass out at that time -- everyday. When the time fell back, so did EG to 6:40 p.m. It hasn't changed in over 7 months.

Phase IV
This was by far the hardest phase. Around 3.5 months, EG's sleep went to hell. She was ALWAYS asleep by 7:40 p.m., but she woke up, ate at crazy times, had periods of awake time during the night, etc... It lasted until about 7.5 months. Now, during those four months there were periods of calm and progress, but it was very unpredictable and stressful.

Phase V
After one night of CIO (30 minutes of fussing...not screaming), EG slept through the night. She has done that for almost two months now. I would say that every 2 weeks or so we have a night that isn't perfect, but overall they are great. She still falls asleep 6:40 p.m. every single night.

The Rocking: During phases II and IV the rocking was constant. It would take hours to rock that girl to sleep. Feed, rock, change, repeat. At times it felt like you were chained to the rocker. However, I still rock her to sleep.

It doesn't take more than a few minutes and she easily transitions to her crib from my arms. I read about 100 books that told me not to rock her, but we are only having one child, we have the time, and we all enjoy it. We will continue to rock until one of us decides that it is time to stop. I assume that will be Phase VI.

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