sleep chronicles: day 4 thru week 3

*If you don't read anything else - read this...Sadie said her first 4 word sentence today!! Right after I tucked her in & was sitting on the floor she said "Hit the road, Bucko!" - with gusto...it was SO hard not to laugh!! Her daddy sure teaches her funny things. Then she started in on "Honey? Ry, Ry, Ry!?" She loves to call us 'honey' - something we call each other & her. And maybe she figured out her daddy's name is Ryan, and loves to say it over and over and over again! Silly girl.

Here's a quick update on the sleep training. Day 4 thru about day 10 Sadie decided being in her crib alone was awesome playtime...she still went to sleep, just after a lot of rearranging of her bedding, tucking in her bear, laying back down, getting up and tucking him in again & plenty of talking. Ry & I did not interact with her once we were sitting on the floor and kept eyes closed, pretending to be (and sometimes actually) falling asleep. This was just a phase, she has needed a few "ssshhh, time for sleep" reminders, but mostly she does pretty good. No tears, just playing. But I'd take the playing over the crying any day!

After about day 10 till now we've kind of plateaued at the following...She falls asleep, usually around 15 min, on a bad night when she's not tired enough, more like an hour (but that's our fault). Oh, and we've been sitting all the way across the room, right by her closed door. Then once she's asleep, we open the door and exit, closing it behind us. (side note: we did not move across the room gradually like planned, we just did it one night & she was fine with it, so we never went back)

Yesterday I decided we needed to move past this plateau and get to our end goal - laying her down and leaving the room completely. So, for her nap today, everything was as usual but I left the door open and sat in the doorway, didn't faze her at all.

So tonight we did the same, but this time I sat even farther out of the room, but she could still see me. After a few minutes I heard her breathing deepen, so I took a leap of faith and quietly scooted into the hall, totally out of view. I stayed there quietly waiting & listening before I pulled the door shut. But no, not asleep. She noticed I was gone and started with "Mommy, blankie?!", but she wasn't crying, so I just listened.

I couldn't see her, but I'm pretty sure at one point she was on her feet stretching to see out the door. Then when she got quiet again I made my way to our room across the hall & waited till she was totally asleep to pull the door shut. Our little munchkin successfully put herself to sleep in an empty room tonight!!! Miracle of miracles. Granted I kind of sneaked out, but still - progress! And thank heavens Ryan left his cell phone in our room - I read the ensign by light of cell phone. =)