Bedtime = Conquered!

Okay. Dare I say it? Dare I say it? Okay. I'll say it. I think we've got the whole sleeping thing figured out with Savannah. Thankfully, since she was 6 weeks old she's had her days and nights figured out. However, our biggest obstacle since then has been getting her to go to sleep at a consistent time every night. Once she's asleep she'll sleep anywhere between 10-12 hours without waking up at all. We're so grateful for that. But it's been a guessing game every night when she'll actually fall asleep for the night. Sometimes it's 8:30pm and other times it's 1:30am. But I think I figured out a system that has worked beautifully for the past 7 nights. Instead of me trying to get her to fall asleep by rocking her or walking around with her I've been making her fall asleep on her own. I simply do our normal bedtime routine (bath and feeding) and then put her in her crib, turn the lights out and walk out. The first couple of nights I had to keep going back to console her every 5 minutes because she was crying. That first night, 7 nights ago, I went back and forth consoling her for 45 minutes. But with each night the time has gotten shorter and shorter. I think she understands now! I put her to bed the night before last and she was WIDE awake, just like the first 5 nights. But for the past couple of nights there has been no crying and she fell asleep all on her own. I had actually forgotten that this is what we did with Benjamin and it worked with him. I sure wish I would've remembered this sooner! I've probably jinxed myself now by talking about how well this system has been working for us. Even so, I sure have enjoyed the consistency while it lasted.