Round 3 - Gwen

So as many of you may know, I've been struggling - well pretty much for the duration of her life - to get my daughter to sleep in her crib. This kid could be in such a dead sleep that I've got to check her pulse just to make sure she's alive and yet the very second she touches the crib mattress she's wide awake, kicking and screaming. If it wasn't my kid it might be downright fascinating and entertaining.

However, I had recently determined that I'd had enough. The kid is almost one, and she's really starting to sleep well through the entire night without waking. I was convinced that if I could just get her to fall asleep in the crib that I'd be fine. My new strategy was to move the crib into Aaron's room. She loves to play in there and I thought if the crib was a visible part of that room she might become more comfortable with it. It would no longer be a cage in the corner of mommy and daddy's room.

Night one, was Sunday night. I laid her in the crib and she screamed, and screamed, and screamed. I went in, stood next to the crib and stroked her back. We turned on the white noise and she actually fell asleep for about 10 minutes before getting up and wailing again. I left the room and let her cry for quite some time before Matt had had enough. Round one - Gwen.

Monday night, I placed her in the crib when I was getting Aaron ready for bed, she screamed of course. I took her out while I was reading books to Aaron and she played on the floor for a while. Put her back in bed, and laid down next to the crib - didn't look at her or anything and she was asleep in 10-15 minutes. And she slept through the entire night. I heard her cry and stir a little around 1 a.m. but she went right back to sleep. She slept from about 11 pm to 9 am!! Round Two - Momma. And let me just say when I woke up that following morning it was like there was suddenly 2 suns - the world was so much brighter! It was fabulous. I hadn't been that happy since Prince started calling himself Prince again!

Last night I followed the same routine as Monday and she fell asleep in about 20 minutes. However, she awoke at 2 a.m. and cried for a good 5-10 minutes and Matt brought her into bed. I was too tired to argue. Round 3 - Gwen.

Now you may be wondering how Aaron's taking the whole thing and he's been great. First of all he's really cute because he sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her, even though she can't hear it because she's wailing at the decibal level of a small jet plane. The other great thing is that this kid can sleep through a five alarm fire. I mean, once he falls asleep she can wail in there until her head is on the verge of exploding and he doesn't even stir. Makes me a little nervous in case there ever was a five alarm fire.

Anyway so the battle royale continues. I'll keep you posted.