.sleep methods.

little miss olive has not been sleeping very well in bed with us. i dont know if she doesnt feel well or if its too crowded. she likes her space when she sleeps but has to know im still there. she will reach for me and if she cant find me she gets frantic and wakes herself up. she is old enough now not to wake up every 15 minutes-2 hours.

seriously.. some nights its like this. well i was very against the "cry it out" method. i thought it was cruel and unnecessary.. well i was naive. after many sleepless nights i realized we had to do something.. and quick. momma was losing her patience and crying far too frequently. olives dr is wonderful.. we really like him and trust his opinion. he recommends the "ferber method". i talked to a few people and they said this method was too hard because you see their sad little faces when you go back in and it makes it too hard to leave. my sisters son jack sleeps so well and she followed the book.. "healthy sleep habits, happy child".

jack jack

it pretty much says to soothe them for a given amount of time and then put them to bed whether they are asleep or awake and let them cry until they are asleep. it says babies at 6 months of age are capable of sleeping through the night so not to go back in unless their cry sounds like a hungry cry and its been over 4 hours. woah.. thats tough love right there. i see that it works. jack jack tells him mom when its nap time and goes down for naps and bed without a fight. my sister-in-law did it with her 4 1/2 month old and he is sleeping from 630 pm-7 am every night and taking 3 naps a day.. going down without a peep for everything. but miss liv being our first.. its so not easy to listen to her cry. we arent used to those sounds that come from her. for 9 months she was with me in my belly.. she comes out and for the next 6 1/2 months has either been held.. carried in a sling or mei tai.. playing where she could see us.. or sleeping next to momma. she has never slept in her crib. its very confusing for her to not get what she wants. i know.. i know.. this isnt good for her. well i was exhausted and decided it was time to try to get her in her bed. it took lots of coaxing from multiple people but i knew we needed to figure it out. saturday night we started on the cry until they fall asleep method. i put her in her bed and left the room. pete was working so i sat by his feet while he worked.. crying right along with olive. everyone said they usually dont cry for longer than an hour. they do not know punchie apparently. she cried for over an hour before i gave in and went to put her bink back in and tell her i loved her and left. she cried for another 30 minutes before i couldnt take it and went and got her. i know im not supposed to but its so hard to listen to that. that girl had found the cord to the monitor and pulled it down onto her and was screaming into it. no wonder her cries were so sad and loud. well.. she slept in our bed that night. the next night she cried for another hour and 45 minutes and of course.. i gave in again. i never said i was strong. she slept in our bed that night as well. the third night was by far the worst. pete was at his office working so i went about this alone. (pete works so hard for our family.. poor guy.) i was more determined that night.. i listened to her cry for 2 hours and 15 minutes and there were no sounds of backing down. i watched 3 episodes of "so you think you can dance".. those puppies arent short either. i cried and cried and cried while watching those amazing dancers.. im sure some of them werent so great but through a waterfall of tears they looked amazing. i gave up after 2 hours and 15 minutes. you are supposed to be consistent with this but she does not give up the crying. we are lost. we dont know what to do.. obviously i am not strong enough to listen to her cry for hours. tonight we may try the "ferber method". this one is basically.. put them down.. listen to them cry for 5 minutes.. go in and pat their backs but dont pick them up.. go back out and let them cry for 10 minutes.. go in.. go back out for 15.. then 15 there after until they are asleep. the next night you start at 10.. then 15.. then 20. the next night 15.. 20.. 25. make sense? it will be so hard to leave her but i dont know which is worse.. leaving her alone in there to fend for herself or telling her its okay and then leaving. this sleeping stuff is hard! its so much easier to just give in and breastfeed them back to sleep but i know she needs to know how to soothe herself. i know i am not the only one going through this or have gone through this. any advice?

update: i wrote this yesterday and then decided to give up. last night she slept in our bed. she slept for 6 hours and then 4 hours. not bad. we have decided to slowly get her to sleep in her crib. we arent strong enough to listen to her cry and arent desperate enough just yet. i still welcome any suggestions. please. but here are some adorable pictures of little miss.

..im awful..

i am so sorry i never post anything. there is always so much to tell! why dont i ever share?! i dont know.. im always having fun with miss olive.

but i need to be better. i want to remember things she is doing. i want her to be able to look back and read how much we loved her and how she was growing. i want this to be a sort of journal of our lives and hers! please. help. me. okay.. im determined. whether i not i post it for the world to see.. i will still write.. something. so for now i am going to post about what olive is doing now.. how she is growing.. how she is doing. in between these posts there very well may be catch up posts so i am sorry if they dont go in order. anyways....

olive is 6 1/2 months. time has flown in some ways and in others it feels like she has been here always. she is getting so big and is stinkin adorable.

still as bald as ever but i am starting to see hope of hair coming. there are a few long strands that blow in the wind. i think i will cry when they fall out. she is very tall and skinny but does have those adorable chubby cheeks that are irresistable for kissing and rolly polly thighs that you have to tickle and pinch when you change her diaper but for the most part.. she is her daddys girl.. long and slender. girly is almost sitting up on her own. she can roll from her back to her belly and her belly to her back but if she rolls from her back to her belly first.. she cant quite seem to figure out how to get in position after that to roll back to her back.. or maybe she is too tired from building up the back to belly roll. (hopefully that made sense.)

she hates tummy time and will only tolerate it if me or daddy are down there with her coaxing her.

miss hungry pants is now eating rice cereal and has tried bananas.. sweet potatoes.. squash.. applesauce.. peas.. and pears. she does not like bananas and shivers.. gags.. closes her lips.. turns her head.. spits them out.. does whatever she can to tell you that they are disgusting and cant believe you are actually trying to feed them to her. sweet potatoes and pears on the other hand are fantastic and she cant get enough of them.

rice cereal is her favorite solid/semi solid food. she goes "mmmmm" every bite.

im not kidding. mommas milk is still her favorite thing ever though. fine with me. i love the bonding time it gives us. so that is a semi update on her. we are amazed every day by her and cant believe we lucked out so much.

punchie is the best baby anyone could ever ask for. will go days without crying. unless we are trying to get her to sleep in her own bed.. thats another story. we do the bed sharing thing. i will post more about that another time. just so you know.. it works for us for now so im going to be brutally honest and tell you to keep your negative comments about bed sharing to yourself because we love it and wouldnt change it.. yet. there is a yet though. : )

but for now i will leave you with pictures you can drool over. love. this. girl.