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Lyla’s big week 8

// January 18th, 2009 // family

We’ve had Lyla with us now for eight amazing weeks. Incredible how time flies. And actually, thinking back now, eight weeks seems almost like a short time compared to how it feels right now. It’s like she’s always been here.

So why was it a big week? Well first off, if you haven’t seen the smiley pictures yet, you can right over here. She’s not just smiling here and there now…she’s doing it all the time.  Kate Jones, the girl who did the painting in the picture here with Lyla, will be super happy to know that she’s not only LOOKING at it all the time, she SMILES at it when she sees it. Sometimes, she almost giggles. It’s so crazy cool.

But that wasn’t the big thing. The big thing was possibly bigger for her parents than for Lyla, but either way, it was a large step that we took.

Up until now, with Jina not working and the both of us just in “survival” mode as some call it, Lyla has pretty  much been sleeping with us in bed. It’s just the way we both got sleep, Lyla would sleep soundly and all were happy.

About four weeks ago our pediatrician told us that we needed to get her in the crib and to let her cry it out if that’s what it took. Well, I’ve been reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (thanks Tracy and Kory for the heads up on this book!) and it seemed like four weeks old was a bit too young for her at this point to do the “cry it out” method. At least, that’s just how we felt.

But the more time went on, the more we realized we have to get her sleeping in a crib and falling asleep on her own. Jina goes back to work next Monday, and Lyla has to be with a sitter two days a week. We kind of owe it to her to let her watch a baby that can be put down in pack-n-play and be able to conk out.

So on Thursday evening, we decided to start. I was actually hoping it would go okay and that I would be at work the next day. Little did I know we’d get about two hours of sleep that night.

Thursday Night

The first night we put her down to sleep was sometime between 8-10 I guess, it’s really hard to remember all the times the last few days. We bathed her, fed her, cuddled with her and she got sleepy, eyes droopy and we knew it was time. We turned on her little Ladybug Nightlight (it’s just the coolest thing ever, thanks Aunt Marilynn!), which shoots stars up on the ceiling and walls, giving just a HINT of light.

We turned on the A/C fan to help mute the noise, turned on the fan in the bathroom, turned the TV up to a decent level and had the baby video monitor on mute.

Lyla laid down in her crib, we told her we loved her, gave her kisses, sang a bit and we left the room, closing the door.

We both sat at the table, trying to distract ourselves with the laptops, looking over at the monitor every few seconds. We tried to ignore it, but it was difficult. The crying was hard…so very hard. Yet from everything I’ve read and experienced since then, you know it doesn’t hurt them. They don’t remember it, they don’t know you abandoned them…they are just…crying.

That doesn’t stop it from hurting you or being hard to handle. I never in a million years thought it would bother me that bad. I’m a hard-nosed guy sometimes when it comes to things we “have to do”…and this was one of those things that needed to be done.

It lasted for 55 minutes the first time. Then she was out. We couldn’t believe it when she finally went quiet. We un-muted the monitor and tried to sleep on the couch. Didn’t last long. She was up in about 45 minutes, which was close to feeding time anyways.

The rest of the night when we put her back down, it was 30 minutes of crying, then 10, then none. She didn’t necessaily sleep forever, but the crying went away!

And when she was up in the morning…can you believe she was giggly, smiley and generally happy? She slept in the morning and seemed to sleep much better on her own than ever before.

Friday Night

The second night was a breeze. Beyond all odds, she went to bed without crying. She would make fussy noises, grunts, yips…and she wiggled and squirmed…but she was completely different than the night before. She slept a little longer each time. The only time she cried was when we put her back to bed around 5am. She cried on and off for about 40 minutes, but it wasn’t the blood-curdling screams from the night before. Just soft whining and stuff.

We were so happy with out progress, we hit Paradise Bakery in the morning for breakfast, then went to the mall and she slept the whole time. Of course, that may have proved to be too much for her because she maybe slept TOO long and that night was rough.

Saturday Night

I had a weird feeling all day that Saturday night would be hard for some reason. Maybe because she slept so much, or was gassy/fussy in the late afternoon…but I just knew in my gut this bedtime would be rough.

We also may have tried to put her down earlier than the night before, and perhaps we need to stick to strict bedtimes. She was also dead asleep when we laid her down, meaning she woke up in darkness and no one around. The book says that when you put them to bed, do it when they are sleepy but awake.

So…we put her down around 8:30 and she slept for about 10 minutes and woke up screaming. Ugh. I think it lasted about 50 minutes again and she fell asleep. But she was fidgety and moving a lot during her sleep.

That was the end of our troubles though, thank God.

She woke up and Jina fed her around 11pm. I took her back to the room, rocked her a bit, laid her down, rubbed her belly and kissed her forehead a bunch of times, told her I loved her…and she was pretty calm. I left the room and that was it. She moved around a bit, made some noises, but soon fell asleep.

She slept for almost 3 hours! Then we put her back down at 3am and she slept until 6:15! No noise, no crying, no fussing.

And when she woke up this morning, I held her for a few minutes as she came out of sleep slowly, and then when her eyes finally opened, I pointed out Kate’s painting and she got a big stinkin’ grin on her face and almost laughed.

I put her down to change her and she was just happy and grinning and making giggle noies and I was melting inside.

She was just so cheerful and content. It made us know we did the right thing, or at least, weren’t doing the wrong thing.

Thanks to the friends of ours on Thursday night who saw what we were doing via Twitter and Facebook, and gave us moral support. It helped A LOT, you have no idea.