Sleepless in Rochester part 2

From Mommy ~ Okay there have been lots of comments on our sleep habits rant so here is an update:

After her regular bedtime routine of bath, breastfeeding, bedtime stories and lullabies, Annabelle drifted peacefully off to sleep last night without a peep at her usual time of 7:00. She woke up at 10:30 for a snack, then slept until 2:00 when she woke up for another snack. This is just about the exact times of the night before. Lovely! She did have a bit of a blip between 3:15 and 3:45 - NOT crying, but wiggling around and fussing a bit. Her noises were approximately equivalent to the sounds she makes when she is "reading" a book or chewing on a really good tag. So I just listened to her talk and when it started to sound like she was getting upset, I peeked in and rubbed her back for a few minutes. I didn't feed her (my goal is to get her to go at least 3 hours between feedings at night, since she goes at least that long between feedings during the day) and I didn't pick her up. She was able to be soothed by just a few "I love you's" and a little back rub. She was still awake when I went back to bed, but drifted back off to sleep on her own WITHOUT CRYING AT ALL! She slept on until 4:45, ate, and then went back to sleep until 5:45! Hurray!

Also - before people start thinking I am a heartless Mommy, when I say I am letting her cry it out what I mean is I put her in her crib while she is still awake and let her make sleepy noises instead of feeding or holding her until she falls asleep like I used to. If she is actually crying I respond immediately - in spite of reading otherwise in many of the baby sleep books I've studied, I believe that if Annabelle cries it means she needs me and the last thing I want to do is "teach" her that Mommy only comes when she cries during the day. I actually think that letting her cry by herself in her crib is going to give her BAD sleep habits in the long run because she will feel like bed is a sad, lonely place instead of a cozy happy one. Okay, just had to clarify that one. :-)

And finally, to those who have offered lovely lists of advice, in Annabelle's nearly nine months we have tried white noise, no white noise, soothing music, no soothing music, nightlight, no nightlight, co-sleeping, family bed, feeding water instead of milk during the night, etc. etc. Basically everything you can find in a book or a desparately tired Mommy/full-time teacher's brain we have tried. So now we are just trying to stick to a predictable bedtime routine and teach Annabelle to fall asleep happily on her own as much as possible. We'll see how it goes!