sleeping like a baby

Sorry I haven't written. Actually, I have. It's just that since I wrote this there hasn't been ONE TIME of sleeping through the night, and that fact has made me so depressed I didn't write again. Okay, actually it's just been a really busy month, but here you go:
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It's AMAZING! My baby slept from 12:30 until 8:45 with ONLY ONE INTERRUPTION to which HER FATHER RESPONDED by plugging in the nuk (paci, plug, pacifier, "pipe," whatever you call it) and she went right back to sleep. That means that, except for a breif moment at 5:30 or so when we heard her cry and dad went in to fix it, MOMMY SLEPT FROM 12:30 am UNTIL 8:45 AM!!!! Okay, a celebration is called for. I seriously can't believe it. Many spoke of the day when, lo, I would sleep through the night. In fact, many people have said helpful things such as "wait until 4 months--that's when she'll sleep better." Or, alternately, "It's 5 months when they really settle down, why little [insert baby name here] was sleeping through the night at 5 months." But I waited. And I waited. And it never came. In fact, Helena began getting teeth at 4 months old, so I guess we were doomed.

We have been reading several books, and reviews of books, and magazine articles, and online articles, and looks on peoples' faces, to determine what we were doing wrong all this time because Helena would simply not sleep through the night. And I finally decided that it was just a timing factor, because there are all these kids out there sleeping through the night at 3, 4, 5 months old and here she was, over 6 months, and still not sleeping for more than 3-4 hours at a time.

And "yes, we tried it" to everything you are thinking right now.

Anyway, somehow it clicked...and I let her cry herself to sleep at 7ish when she usually goes (FULLY FED, diapered, washed, happy...except that mommy wasn't entertaining her), and then nursed her at 12:30am for a few moments. And then that was it.

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Okay, since that day, she hasn't slept through the night. But we have begun the process of trying to get her to sleep more. She's still on a pretty regular nap schedule (I am always telling moms that I'd rather her not sleep through the night than not nap in the daytime...that's DOUBLE rough and you get nothing done then). But there hasn't been that "click" where suddenly she sleeps one, then a couple, then a bunch of nights in a row. Nope.

Isn't it crazy how their sleep DEFINES you when they're little? When she gets sleep and I get sleep it's like "okay, I can do this." When we don't, it's more like "When daddy gets home he better watch you so mommy doesn't pass out." Gracious. Has it been almost 8 months? 8 months of only one time of sleeping almost through the night? Ahh, the incredible human resistance. Now I know what the marines must feel like.

You know the phrase "I slept like a baby last night"? It just doesn't seem right. I know what that's supposed to mean--it should mean that you slept really well. I can never say that. Well, actually, I could use that phrase every time I sleep only 2 or 3 hours in a row, awaking at 12-then-1-then-3-then-5, and then wake up ready to tackle the day, smile on my face. That's sleeping like a baby. But I'm not sure I've yet opened my eyes ready to tackle the day.

Well, at least not with a smile on my face. :)

Until then.