Emma: 9 Months

Sweet little squishy,

I am thrilled to say that you are FINALLY feeling better!  You were sick for nearly your entire 8th month of life, so this was a welcomed change.  You are back to napping pretty well (2x per day) but nights have continued to be a struggle.  We started letting you cry it out a little in the middle of the night this month.  The first night we started you woke at 3am and I nursed you for a very short feed and you went right back to sleep.  Then you woke at 5am and Daddy tried to rock you back to sleep and changed your very wet diaper.  That didn't work so we let you cry for 15 minutes or so, which was SO hard to listen to!  I decided to give you a small bottle of pumped milk (in hopes of breaking the nursing for comfort habit) and you drank only a little bit of it.  I put you back down and you cried for about 10 more minutes before falling back to sleep around 6:15am.  It was so hard hearing you cry and knowing that if I nursed you, you would fall back to sleep peacefully.  However, this was one of those moments where I had to focus on the bigger picture and choose the harder option.  The following night we decided it was time to drop to only one middle of the night feeding.  It was a tough night with some crying, gas drops and a bottle of water, but you did it!  On the third night you woke only one time to eat and slept the rest of the night peacefully!  AMAZING!  Unfortunately this was not the end of 2 middle of the night feedings forever as you still had a few nights where you needed 2 feedings, but this was definitely a turning point.  Last night you made it the whole night with no feedings for the first time in your life!  You still woke up once, but I just held you for a few minutes and you went right back to sleep.  Huge progress!

At the beginning of this month we started giving you only finger foods and squeezy pouches of baby food.  You LOVE feeding yourself and eat much more when you can do it all yourself.  The only bummer with this new found freedom is how messy you get, often requiring a bath after mealtime.  Some of your favorites are sweet potatoes, green beans, mango, any carb, peas, and blueberries (not your favorite, but this was your first month ever trying them).  You have a horrible habit of throwing your sippy cup of water onto the floor after every single sip.  This creates a fun game of go fetch with mommy at every meal, which you seem to enjoy.  Stinker!  :-)

Your second tooth broke through this month (bottom left), which explains why you are chewing and sucking on everything these days  You learned how to climb up several steps with no help, have been cruising along the furniture, finally started crawling on your hands and knees, and scoot everywhere on your bottom.  You are a mover!  You are absolutely obsessed with the tv cabinet - always opening the sliding doors and pulling things out.  You started saying the "p" sound this month and have been very noisy the past few days.  I'm guessing that you will be getting another tooth soon, based on how fussy you have been the past couple days.

Baby girl, you are absolutely precious.  You remain a serious baby with limited smiles and giggles, but when you do show us that gummy grin, it melts our hearts.  Your open-mouthed kisses are my favorite and your crazy hair that sticks straight up reminds me that you are still just a little baby, which I love. 

9 Month Stats
- Clothes: 9 & 12 Months
- Diaper: Size 3 during the day & size 4 at night
- Schedule:
7 or 7:30am - Wake, Nurse (5 min), Solids, Play
2 Hours after waking (9 or 10am) - Nap
1.5-2 hours later (11 or 12pm) - Wake, Nurse (4-5 min), Solids, Play
2-2.5 hours after waking (1 or 2pm) - Nap
1.5-2 hours later (3 or 3:30pm) - Wake, Nurse (4 min), Play
6pm - Solids, Bedtime Routine (bath as needed, pjs, diaper)
7pm - Nurse (3-5 min), Bed

A little chat....

Today I had a chat with Hannah before nap time (well actually we chatted yesterday after nap time and several times throughout the day today about this) about what she should do when she wakes up from a nap.  For those that don't know, my child is not a sleeper!  She has been a horrible napper since the beginning and I've basically just learned to deal with it.  I started with the one hour rule, where I would leave her for one hour, no matter what.  She would normally sleep for just 30-45 minutes and then scream the remaining 15-30 minutes.  Oh the joy.  She finally started stretching her nap out to closer to one hour, so I extended the time I left her in her crib to one and a half hours.  I know that this extra 30 minutes will be crucial once Emma arrives.  So now I leave her for a full hour and a half, no matter what.  For the first month or so of doing this, things were GREAT!  She slept for 1.5-2 hours everyday....unheard of for Hannah!  But in the last week, things have changed.  She is starting to go back to the 45 minute naps (1 hour tops) and then screaming bloody murder for the rest of the time.  So frustrating!  The hardest part was knowing that if she would just sleep for the full hour and a half, she would wake up happy and well rested, instead of cranky and screaming!  What was the deal?  So I knew it was time to have a chat.  Have you ever tried having a civilized conversation with a two year old?  Not the easiest thing!  I have no idea what she understood of our conversation, but I tried to use the simplest language I could to explain to her that mommy always comes and never forgets her.  She doesn't need to scream or cry, but can instead play quietly with her toys until mommy comes.  She said "ok mommy" as if this idea had never occurred to her and said, "night night mommy" as I put her down for her nap.  Hmmm....we'll see.

It's been just over an hour now since I put her down and she just started fussing a few minutes ago....at almost exactly the one hour mark.  BUT....she stopped!  It is now silent in her room and I am praying that our chat worked.  I will listen even more closely in another 30 minutes to see if she is awake and if so I will get her up, feeling very successful!  Ultimately, I don't care if she sleeps, I just want her to rest her body and give herself (and ME!) a break. 

Thank you Lord for a few extra moments of silence today!  May this continue for many months to come! :-)

Every 2 Weeks

I have decided that parenthood's ups and downs happen in two week cycles.  For two weeks things will go great and then it's like a switch flips and then for the next two weeks you are pulling your hair out.  Then things go back to being great.  This may not prove true for everyone, but it does for us.  Some of you are blessed with an "angel" baby and things have been relatively great since the beginning while others have a bit of a challenge on their hands.  It is so easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated when baby doesn't sleep or eat well, but if I continue to remind myself that this is just a phase and things will get better, it makes it easier to deal with.

For example,  when we switched Hannah's schedule to more of a 'Babywise' approach, things were great right away!  She started sleeping 10-12 hours through the night and napping 3 times per day for at least an hour each time.  I kept a very detailed log of our entire day so I could see the patterns and what worked and what didn't.  For about 2 weeks, things were going GREAT!  I spoke the praises of 'Babywise' and told everyone I knew that 'Babywise' was exactly what we needed.  Well, then things changed.  I didn't change anything with our schedule or routine, yet she stopped sleeping through the night and her naps became almost non-existent!  UGH!  What happened to our 'Babywise' cure all??  I had several break-downs and tried to figure out what was happening.  What was I do differently?  Was she sick?  What she teething?  What she going through a growth spurt?  Nothing I did seemed to solve the sleep problems.  So we are just dealing with it.  I continue to stick to the routine (as much as possible) and hope that things will click again.  I assume that by next week, she will be back to "normal" and things will be great again.  But in the meantime, we push on.  Today has been especially tough.  Hannah woke up two hours early, ate, and thankfully went right back to sleep for 2 more hours.  But then the rest of the day was completely off!  She didn't take her morning nap at all (after letting her cry it out for an hour, I gave up).  Then she only took a 30 minute afternoon nap (again, I let her cry it out for an hour when she woke up early...no luck).  Now she is down for her final nap of the day and thankfully has been sleeping for the last 20 minutes, but I'm sure it won't be long before I hear her crying again.  Oh the joys of parenthood! haha

So, what's my advice for those days and nights that are just completely crazy?  Keep trying!  Just chalk it up to a bad day (or week, or month) and move on.  Yes, you will be frustrated.  And yes, you will shed some tears.  But things will get better (eventually) and when they do, you will be that much more thankful.  Times like this remind me so much of our struggle with infertility!  While we tried to conceive for 2 years, deep down inside I knew it would eventually happen, but the waiting sure did stink!  I pleaded to the Lord and cried out to Him for strength.  It was the hardest thing I had ever gone through.  But the Lord was faithful!  He heard my cries and He blessed us with our sweet little peanut.  The same was true with my horrible morning sickness during pregnancy and my extremely painful labor.  And it's still true today!  God is always faithful!  He will always bring you out of the darkness and show you His mercy!  But sometimes we have to endure the tough times to get there.  And when we do, the good times are that much sweeter!

So press on.  Don't get completely obsessed with the "little" things that go wrong every day.  Focus on the good times and the many blessings in your life.  And know that God will be faithful and will bring you brighter days!

That's my sermon for the day! ;-)  I needed to hear that more than anyone!

Sleep...or lack there of!

Oh sleep, where art thou?  Hannah's sleeping habits have taken a nose dive over the last 2 months or so.  I realize now just how lucky we were to have such a great sleeper for the first 3 months.  Hannah slept through the night (7 hours) at 5 days old and never looked back (well a few days here and there, but nothing notable).  Then at 3 months (almost to the day), she started waking up in the middle of the night.  For the first week or so I treated it like a growth spurt and would feed her and she would usually go right back down.  Well, when her night waking continued, I realized that it was no longer a growth spurt and most likely a habit she had formed.  So we started trying a few different things....mainly giving her a pacifier before she woke herself up completely.  This has worked well for the middle of the night wakings (usually just once or twice), but the latest problem is when she first goes down for the night.  We are just never sure how it will go.  Sometimes she falls right to sleep with barely any fussing, while other nights she screams for 45 minutes or more (with us going in and out a couple times to check on her and comfort her).  Then there are the nights (most nights lately) where she wakes up after having been asleep for about an hour.  Sometimes the pacifier will work during this waking as well, and sometimes it won't.  Sometimes the only thing that works is another feeding (even though she just ate an hour ago).  This night time inconsistency is really starting to wear me out.  After letting her cry it out for over 3 months, it is just exhausting that she still doesn't get it.  Doesn't she understand that we aren't going to get her up and play with her...it's bedtime!

Well, after talking to some friends and trying to figure out why she is not falling asleep well and/or waking up in the middle of the night and/or an hour after falling asleep, I decided to try something new.  Our typical night time routine looks like this:
7:10pm - Bath time (every other night)
7:20pm - Pjs, massage with lotion, a few minutes of quite play in her room with mom and dad
7:45pm - Feed (lately our goal is for her to nurse on each side for at least 7 minutes, but sometimes she won't even go that long)
8pm - Story from her children's bible, prayers, and bed
I decided that since she doesn't always have a great feeding at this time, maybe my milk supply is down too much and she isn't getting enough.  So tonight I decided to supplement with 2 oz. of formula after she nursed.  She was a little hesitant at first, but then she ate it all.  In addition to the extra food, I used the Johnson & Johnson Bedtime lotion for her massage tonight.  And I gave her the prevacid her doctor had prescribed for her a while back (we hadn't give it consistently because we really don't like giving her medications....more on that in another post).  So with all of those different things, I am praying that she sleeps very well tonight!  So far, so good!  She went down with no crying at all (a little fussing and complaining, but only for a minute and never any real crying) and has been asleep for about 20 minutes now.  We'll see what happens when she hits the 1 hour mark! 

Any suggestions anyone has would be HIGHLY appreciated.  It is so hard to hear her cry and equally as hard to get up in the middle of the night to pop the pacifier in her mouth or feed her.  It is just hard because I know she can sleep through the night (she did it for 3 months!) and I really don't want to create bad habits with her.  I am really not a fan of giving her the pacifier at night (a habit I don't want to have to break down the road), but that is all we have come up with so far and it really is magic for her.  The second we put it in, she plops her head right back down and falls asleep (not always, but typically). 

Praying that tonight she will prove me wrong and sleep wonderfully!

Random Thoughts and Questions

My mind is all over the place today, so I thought I would write a random post and include all of my mind's wanderings.

• First of all, we are all back to normal and feeling healthy!  Thank you Lord for the blessing of health.  The house has finally been put back together and life has resumed as it was before.  

• Hannah will be 3 months old on Friday (just 2 days away!).  Hard to believe, but my little peanut will no longer be a newborn.  She will move on to the infant stage.  3 months brings changes to her schedule.  Up until now her schedule has been the 6, 10, 2, 6, 10 feeding schedule.  She has always napped between the 6am and 10am feeding and the 2pm and 6pm feeding.  This schedule has worked GREAT for us!  What changes at 3 months is her bedtime.  Instead of keeping her up until 10pm, we will start putting her down earlier.  I'm just not sure how this is going to work.  Essentially the schedule stays the same, just more sleep....hmmm?!  I'm just not sure how to go about doing this.  Dr. Denmark (the pediatrician whose book we have followed since day 1) recommends feeding at 6pm and putting them to bed soon after.  Then doing a dream feed at 10pm (where you go in and feed them and put them right back down, barely waking them up).  Then after a month you drop that dream feed and they are supposed to sleep straight through til morning.  Yeah right?! I just don't see that happening?!  Any suggestions??

• Brian's parents and sister are coming into town on Friday!  YEAH!!  We LOVE having family come visit.  It will be especially fun because Hannah will be starting rice cereal when they are here.  Let the fun begin! :-)

• We had a scary night last night.  Since I am trying to figure out this whole new schedule thing, I am toying around with different options.  I decided to feed her a little earlier than usual last night (8:45pm) and put her down.  She did great until she woke up at 10:30 crying.  I should have just let her keep sleeping, but my confusion about the new schedule made me get her up to do a "dream feed" (even though she was definitely not asleep).  She ate a full feeding but spit up a bunch of it after we finished.  After burping her I put her back down and she fussed for a minute, but quickly found her fingers to suck on.  Then I heard a loud barf sound and ran into her room to clean it up.  She was choking!  She has sucked in a lot of spit up through her nose and was trying to cough it out.  I was frantic!  I screamed for Brian and he came running up the stairs.  We grabbed the suction bulb and cleaned out her nose, but she was still struggling to catch her breath and had a bright red face.  It took her a few minutes to clear it all out and then she was fine.  But it sure scared me!  We finally put her back down (after lots of snuggles) and she fell asleep with just a little fussing and slept til morning.  Ugh....what a scary night!  I don't think I'm a fan of the "dream feed".

• Hannah is having a very fitful nap today.  She fell asleep pretty well, but then after about 45 minutes she started screaming.  She did this on and off for about an hour.  I kept going in to check on her and she wasn't actually awake, just fussing and crying in her sleep.  I didn't know what was wrong, so I tried putting a blanket over her...maybe she's cold??  (Even though it's really hot in our house upstairs).  I tried taking the blanket off..maybe she's hot??  I tried moving the fan to a better position so she wouldn't be hot.  I tried feeling her diaper to see if it was really wet (she is napping in cloth...so might be?!)  But I just couldn't figure it out.  She finally was quite for about 30 minutes straight until she started crying again.  This time she was awake (head was popping up) so I took the blanket off (again) and popped a paci in her mouth (something I really don't like to do).  But now she is back down and sleeping soundly.  So I guess a paci every once in a while is okay...but I definitely don't want to start a habit.  Any ideas on why she might be crying in her sleep like this??

• Hannah has developed a new habit.  She loves to suck on her right index finger knuckle and rub the back of her head with her left hand.  It's so cute.  She does this when she is awake and when she's asleep.  I guess it's soothing to her to rub her head?  Too funny!

• We are still doing Cry It Out and it's getting better (shorter crying periods) but she is still crying for almost every nap and bedtime.  It's so frustrating!  I thought she would have gotten it by now and no longer cry.  Nope! We started officially letting her CIO on April 15th, so almost 2 months ago.  Anyone else have a baby that took this long to learn to fall asleep without crying?  Is she always going to cry herself to sleep?  I have seen progress, but I yearn for the day that she goes down without any fussing!!

Well, Hannah is up again!  The paci feel out, so time to go put it back in and pray that she will fall back asleep for another half hour or so.  Naps like this are tough! :-(

Why we do Cry It Out...

 

Why do we let Hannah Cry It Out for naps and bedtime?  This is a question I found myself asking today, when she was having a very rough nap!  She has been doing SO well with naps and bedtime lately, that I just wasn't used to hearing her cry for so long anymore.  It started last night when she woke up early (3:30am instead of 6am) and then for her nap this afternoon, she has been really struggling to fall asleep and stay asleep.  In moments like this, I get very flustered and wonder why on earth am I doing this?  This is HARD!  So, in an effort to remind myself and to share with others, I decided to write this post about why we are doing the cry it out method....

Listening to my baby cry is one of the hardest things I have ever done!  But don't confuse hard with wrong.  Just because it's hard, doesn't mean it is wrong!  There are lots of things in life that are hard work, but in the long run cause great benefits!  For example, working out is hard work!  But in the long run we are better off for having worked out.  Cooking healthy meals is hard work, but in the long run it pays to eat healthy.  Pregnancy and labor are hard!!  (VERY hard!)  But the end result is miraculous and SO worth it!  Keeping a clean house is hard work too...but doesn't it feel good when it's done!?  The best things in life aren't easy...they are hard!!

Another reason we do the cry it out method is because of our faith.  We believe that as parents we are called to raise our children in a Godly manner and follow Christ's lead in our parenting.  God doesn't coddle us...yes, He loves us unconditionally, but that doesn't mean that He always gives us the easy road.  We face circumstances in life that are very difficult (illness, infertility, death of a loved one, financial struggles, etc.) but when we look back at those difficult times we see how God used them to make us stronger.  We realize that the bad experience brought us closer to God and taught us things we would never have learned otherwise.  God sets boundaries in our lives, just as we must do for our children.  He leads us in the right direction...He doesn't wait for us to tell Him what we need or what we want to do.  We have no idea what His plans are for our lives...we must rely on Him for guidance.  This is true for our relationship with the Lord and for our role as parents.

Although listening to my baby girl cry herself to sleep is extremely difficult, I know that in the long run it will pay off!  She will become a better sleeper, which will make her more alert during her awake time and feeding time, causing her to thrive and grow in a healthy manner.  We are teaching our baby to fall asleep on her own so that she can become independent someday.  We must teach her to do this at some point in her life, so why not now?

Parenting is not as easy task!!

Cry it Out Update

We have been going strong with sleep training at our house and things are getting SO much better!!  We are still putting Hannah down in her crib for 2 daytime naps (one is in the early morning, which she never cries for so we only have to do CIO for the afternoon one) and then again for bedtime.  She has yet to go down without any crying or fussing, but these days it's mostly just a couple minutes of fussing before falling asleep.  She very rarely hits those horribly high-pitched screams! haha  I am SO glad that we started her sleep training so early.  It has now been 20 days since we started and I just can't believe the progress we have made!  For those that care, here is a detailed update from where I last left off.  I have condensed the notes so it isn't so boring to read! :-)

Day 6 - April 20, 2010

• Nap - Hannah slept until 5:30pm, when I woke her up!! :-)
• Bed - On and off crying for 26 minutes (but never longer than 10 minutes at a time).  Slept from 11:30pm-5am

Day 7 - April 21, 2010

• Nap - On and off crying for 7 minutes. Slept from 2:30-5:15pm (I woke her up!)
• Bed - On and off crying for 22 minutes (had to go in to comfort her once).  Slept from 11:30pm-3:30am (not a very good night)

Day 8 - April 22, 2010

• Nap - We were out and about during nap time, so no nap in her crib 
• Bed - On and off crying for 11 minutes. Slept from 11pm-5am

Day 9 - April 23, 2010 

• Nap - Only 5 minutes of crying!!! Slept from 2pm-5:15pm (a huge accomplishment!)
• Bed - Only 5 minutes of crying!!! Slept from 10pm-5am (WOW..this is getting a lot better!) 

Day 10 - April 24, 2010

• Nap - On and off crying for 12 minutes.  Slept from 2:30-5:30pm (I woke her!)
• Bed - Only 3 minutes of crying!!! Slept from 10:30pm-5:30am (Another GREAT night!!)

Day 11 - April 25, 2010

• Nap - On and off crying for 20 minutes (woke up mid-nap and cried herself back to sleep...tough day!)  
• Bed - On and off crying for 24 minutes (Had to go in one time to comfort her...I think she was too hot!  Then I ended up feeding her again....not a very good night) :-(  But I had to remind myself that sleep training has its good days and its bad...don't get discouraged!!

Day 12 - April 26, 2010

• Nap - On and off crying for 9 minutes. (She woke up after being sound asleep for 35 minutes, and cried herself back to sleep).  Slept soundly from 4-6pm when I had to wake her up.
• Bed - Only cried for 5 minutes!!  Slept from 11pm-6am (I woke her!)  A WONDERFUL night!!

Day 13 - April 27, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 1 minute!!!  Oh my goodness...could she really be learning?!  Slept from 1:30-5pm (I woke her!)
• Bed - On and off crying for 16 minutes (This counts when she woke up after sleeping for 53 minutes and then cried herself back to sleep).  Slept soundly from 11pm-5:45am (I woke her!)

Day 14 - April 28, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 1 minute!!  AMAZING! Slept from 1:30-5pm (I woke her!)  We are on a roll!
• Bed - Only cried for 2 minutes!!  Slept from 10pm-4:30am (could have used a little more sleep, but that's my fault for putting her down earlier than usual)

Day 15 - April 29, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 3 minutes!  Slept from 1:30-4:30pm
• Bed - Only cried for 6 minutes!  Slept from 10:30pm-5:30am

Day 16 - April 30, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 5 minutes! Slept from 4pm-6:30pm
• Bed - We were out really late and her sleep schedule was way off!  I didn't even keep track of her crying because I just didn't think it was fair to count this as a normal night.  She really only cried for a few minutes, but we ended up giving her a bottle of formula before putting her back down because she was all off!  Our fault completely! :-(

Day 17 - May 1, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 5 minutes!!  Slept from 2:30-5pm
• Bed - Only cried for 5 minutes!!  Slept from 10pm-4:30am

Day 18 - May 2, 2010

• Nap - On and off crying for 10 minutes (went in to comfort her once).  Slept from 2-5:30pm
• Bed - On and off crying for 13 minutes (went in once because we forgot to put in her eyedrops...she has an eye infection..boo!)  Slept from 10pm-4:30am

Day 19 - May 3, 2010

• Nap - Only cried for 6 minutes.  Slept from 1:45-4pm and then I brought her downstairs to finish her nap in her swing
• Bed - Only cried for 2 minutes!!  Slept from 9:30pm-4am (Again, we put her down earlier, so she woke up earlier!)

Day 20 - May 4, 2010

• Nap - So far, she has only cried for 5 minutes and has now been sleeping for almost an hour...however, I hear her making some noises now, so we'll see if she cries herself back to sleep or not....

Overall, I am so thrilled with her progress!  Not only is the actual crying becoming less and less, but it is becoming less of a cry and more of a fuss.  Don't get me wrong, she still has her days, but for the most part sleeping is becoming less of an issue for us!!  I can't wait for the day to come that she doesn't cry at all...but that may never come.  I tend to think that fussing is her way of unwinding and soothing herself to sleep.  She has SO much energy that she wants to get out!  Maybe once she starts crawling the crying will stop altogether because she will have another outlet for releasing her energy?!  We'll see.... 

Crying It Out

Crying it out isn't for the weak!  We have started letting Hannah cry when she goes down for a nap and at bedtime.  It has been tough!!  We had gone back and forth for a few weeks about what we should do as far as sleeping goes.  For the first week or two she was an amazing sleeper, sleeping through the night (7 hours) at just five days old.  But at around week 3, everything changed!  Our sleepy little baby suddenly woke up to the world and decided that she didn't like to sleep.  She was still giving us good sleep at night, once she fell asleep, but it would sometimes take hours to get her to doze off.  UGH!  So at 5 weeks we decided it was time to let her cry it out.  No more going back and forth to comfort her and rock her and to give her the paci.  It was time...for all of us!   I just didn't realize how extremely hard it was going to be to listen to my baby cry!  It truly hurts me to hear her scream!  There is something inate in a mother that makes us want to run to our crying baby and comfort them.  I have shed just as many tears throughout this process as Hannah has!  Some nights, the only way I can get through it is by going downstairs and watching tv or surfing the internet, just so I can't hear her.  Amazingly, Brian is able to sleep right through it!  That really baffles me!!

I know there are different schools of thought on letting a baby cry it out.  Some say that a 1 month old (or 5 week old in our case) is too young to self-soothe.  While others say that you should let them cry it out from day one.  So, what is the right way?  I spent hours trying to decide what we should do, talked to friends, read blogs, searched the internet, and talked to our pediatrician.  It seemed that the more research I did, the more I realized that it was time.  While there was still conflicting advice out there, the majority of what I found was that crying it out (under the supervision of watchful parents) is soemething you should do now, rather than later.  While not every baby needs to cry it out, if you have a baby with lots of energy and that fights sleep (like our little Hannah), crying is something that they need to do in order to release that energy. 

When we started on this cry it out journey, I started keeping track of each and every minute of crying and not crying so that I would know exactly how long she spent cried before falling asleep.  This has helped me so much!  It helps me to see just how long the crying has gone on (always much shorter than it feels!) and helps me to see the progress she is making (one step forward, two steps back at times).  So, I wanted to share our progress with you, just in case you were curious.  When I was doing my research I wished I had come across a website that gave me step by step instructions on how to implement crying it out, but I didn't.  So here you go!  I hope this helps someone!  I sit with a clock and the monitor while I write down the minutes and it really helps me to disconnect from her crying (surprisingly) to treat it like a project.  I turn the volume off on the monitor when she is crying and just watch the little lights until they stop.  Then I turn the volume back on so I know if she is making noises or silent.

Day 1 - April 15, 2010

Nap

• Put Hannah down at 2:30pm (after a full feeding)
• 5 minutes - crying
• 6 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 3 minutes - crying
• 24 minutes - no crying (silent) YEAH!!
• 3 minutes - crying
• 27 minutes - no crying (selent) YEAH!!
• 8 minutes - crying
• Decided that she had done well enough for Day 1, so I brought her down to her swing and let her finish her nap there.  She slept until 6pm in the swing!

Bed

• Put Hannah down at 10:09pm (after a full feeding)
• 3 minutes - no crying (silent)
• 9 minutes - crying
• 37 minutes - no crying (silent)
• 9 minutes - crying
• Went in to comfort (this was a rookie mistake...I should not have done this...now you will see the rest of the night spiral out of control...opps!)
• 5 minutes - no crying (silent)
• 5 minutes - crying
• Went back in to comfort (opps!)
• 4 minutes - crying
• Went back in to comfort (I melted down!  I even fed her again at this point, because I just didn't know what else to do.  Had I just left her alone from the beginning, she would have fallen asleep much faster!)
• 2 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 2 minutes - crying
• Finally fell asleep at 12:13am and slept until 6am!

Day 2 - April 16, 2010

We were out and about during nap time today, so didn't put her down in her crib.

Bed

• Put Hannah down at 9:35pm (after a full feeding)
• 9 minutes - crying
• Fell asleep at 9:44pm and slept until 3:30am (which is not normal for her, but I was thrilled and considered this a great accomplishment!)
• Total amount of crying = 9 minutes :-)

Day 3 - April 17, 2010

Again, we were out and about during nap time, so we didn't put her down in her crib.

Bed

• Put Hannah down at 11:08pm (after a full feeding)
• 6 minutes - crying
• 9 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 1 minute - crying
• Fell asleep at 11:24pm and slept until 5:30am  YEAH!!
• Total amount of crying = 7 minutes

Day 4 - April 18, 2010

Nap

• Put Hannah down at 3pm
• 3 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 3 minutes - crying
• 7 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 2 minutes - crying
• 5 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 3 minutes - crying
• Fell asleep at 3:23pm and slept until 6pm
• Total amount of crying = 8 minutes

Bed

• Put Hannah down at 10:13pm
• 9 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 3 minutes - crying
• 5 minutes - no crying
• 5 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 1 minute - crying
• 25 minutes - no crying
• 11 minutes - crying
• 11 minutes - no crying
• 6 minutes - crying
• Fell asleep at 11:31pm and slept until 6am when I had to wake her up! 
• Total amount of crying = 35 minutes (A tough night, but worth it in the end!)

Day 5 - April 19, 2010

Nap

• Put Hannah down at 2:20pm
• 4 minutes - no crying (noises)
• 7 minutes - crying
• 3 minutes - no crying
• 1 minute - crying
• Fell asleep at 2:35pm and slept until 5pm
• I brought her down to her swing to finish her nap (until 6pm)
• Total amount of crying = 8 minutes

Bed

• Put Hannah down at 10:43pm
• 3 minutes - no crying
• 3 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying (noises)
• 2 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 4 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 1 minute - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 2 minutes - crying
• 1 minute - no crying
• 1 minute - crying
• 3 minutes - no crying
• 3 minutes - crying
• 28 minutes - no crying (finally alseep??)
• 6 minutes - crying
• Finally fell asleep at 11:44pm and slept until 6am when I woke her up
• Total amount of crying = 22 minutes

Day 6 - April 20, 2010

Nap

• Put Hannah down at 2:28pm
• 6 minutes - crying
• 5 minutes - no crying
• 2 minutes - crying
• 10 minutes - no crying
• 1 minute - crying
• Fell asleep at 2:53pm and is still sleeping (praying she stays asleep until 6pm!)