Crying-it-out...

So, sometime in the beginning of the summer Ophelia starting waking up at night again. This went on all summer long and I missed the 12-hours of peace a lot!!! I have no idea what started it - it could be that her crib was moved into our bedroom (while my parents stayed with us) and she knew we were right there at night, it could be that she hit so many milestones this summer and started doing so many new things, it could be because she was growing so much and thus was hungry at night..I don't know. But by mid-August she would wake up every 2-3 hours at night and it was not fun!

Soon after PJ got from Mexico, we started trying different methods to get Ophelia to sleep through the night. We tried coming in laying her down again and patting her back. She would not have it - she immediately would stand up again and cry,cry,cry. We tried feeding her water, thinking that it would help her realize the "milk factory" is closed for the night. She would go for that either and still kept waking up every 2-3 hours. We also tried rocking her (well, PJ did). It did make her go back to sleep, but only to awake again within 20-or-so minutes. I tried feeding her a big dinner...that didn't do much either. Breastfeeding worked like magic and put her right back to sleep, but that didn't solve the waking-up-all-the-time problem.

We both agreed that we would have to try the cry-it-out method. It was one of the HARDEST things my motherly heart had to endure. The first night was awful. She woke up several times and cried for about 40-45 minutes each. Each time I was standing by my bedside ready to go console my sweet little girl. It was sad and very hard! If not for PJ, I would have never gone through this. The second night she woke up one time and only fussed for maybe 15 minutes. The third night -AAHHH- I slept like an angel, along with PJ and Opehlia. She did NOT wake up AT ALL! It was a miracle. Ever since then, she's been sleeping through the night again - and I get my 12 hours of peace :) I love it!

New floor mat in Opehlia's room