Sunday, September 7, 2008

could it be??

WOW!! My light at the end of the tunnel wasn't as far away as it had seemed!!
Little Jacklyn has been up so much at night lately, that this sleep-deprived Mama got desperate! I decided that she needed to learn the skill of falling asleep on her own so that perhaps it will aid her with nighttime sleeping. Or waking. You know what I mean. I just want her to stop keeping me up all night....as much as I do love that little punkin.
Last Friday, I started. I put her down for her nap and walked out of the room. 65 minutes, lots of tears (by both of us) and a bunch of feeling awful about it later....she fell asleep. She slept for about 45 minutes, then she was up. She nursed and slept another hour and 15 minutes on the couch. She was tired! It killed me and I didn't try again until this week.
I did it again on Friday. What is it about that day of the week? Perhaps I'm just worn out by then after doing school and our busy schedule that I'm desperate for her to nap well and hopefully sleep well at night. (The night time has been MUCH better, by the way!)Anyway, this Friday, she screamed for about 55 minutes, I kept going in to check on her and reassure her....and she finally fell asleep....standing up! It was sooo pathetic and sad. She had been crying, looking at the bedroom door for me to come in. I was able to lay her down and she only rolled over and went back to sleep. This nap was a whopping 40 minute one!! I got her up and went about with our afternoon as usual. Pretty nuts.
Yesterday, (Saturday) she did the scream/cry/fall asleep standing up thing for a solid hour. I wanted to take a picture of her standing up but was just so afraid she'd wake up that I didn't try it. Bummer, because she woke up each time I went to lay her down anyway.
Well, today Jeff put her down for her nap. She did stand up. She did scream, cry and fall asleep standing up. Or so I thought. This time I decided that I'd click the picture anyway, since she'd wake up when I went to lay her down anyway. Well, I went in when she got quiet, but her eyes were open. I snapped this picture anyway, just to give you the idea....just picture eyes closed instead of the sad, pleading, crying look you see here. Maybe tomorrow I'll get THE shot I was hoping for...but, maybe not.

Why, you ask? Well, because today she fell asleep in only 8 minutes!!!! Praise the Living God!! I couldn't rejoice more that it didn't take as long!!! She napped for a good hour and 15 minutes, too. There truly is a light at the end of this dark, sad tunnel. I'm thrilled and just had to share every detail of it here!!

2 comments:

jenny said...

Yay!!! 8 minutes! That's amazing, especially compared to the hour it's been the last two times! I hope that continues, but I really want to see the picture of her standing there asleep. I guess if you never get it, that's a good thing! I'm praying that your night times get longer too! I love you and that little sweetie!

gery-riggin said...

ahhh -- this reminds me of shauna and that trying time of her getting herself to sleep.