A post that has nothing to do with sleep

Melina's doing a lot of new things now. It's pretty amazing how much she has changed over the last few months. I think the period between six and nine or ten months is really one of the most interesting in terms of development. (So far, anyway!). She's mastered the art of crawling, pulling herself up, and standing, and she's climbing up the stairs (seven times yesterday!). She's also saying new words. She will look at me in the middle of the night and very seriously say "Ga." I'm sure it's supposed to mean something, but I can't fathom what. Probably something like "Why don't you go downstairs and make me a nice cup of warm milk while I lay here and bask in the comfort of this feather pillow?" She will also wave goodbye when you say "bye bye," even if you don't wave first; and she enjoys climbing all over the cat.

She's eating everything under the sun, including dust bunnies, fuzz balls, ancient pieces of dried tofu, and sequins. She also enjoys fresh tofu squares (the girl LOVES tofu), chicken, puffed rice, puffed kamut, cheerios, polenta, green beans (especially Thai fried green beans), eggless egg salad (made from tofu, of course), broccoli (sometimes), peas (sometimes), and stewed prunes (always!). We gave her some pretty spicy Cajun chicken the other day and she gobbled it up. Looks like she's going to be an adventurous eater, which is a big relief for mama!

A sleep truce

We have reached a truce with the sleep issues. Now we have Melina's crib up next to the bed at night. She sleeps there, and either Jeff or I soothe her and get her back to sleep when she wakes up. Supposedly, according to the "No Cry Sleep Solution," this will eventually lead to her sleeping all night, and we can gradually move the crib away from our bed. According to other books, this is just teaching her to wake up all night. Who really knows? Anyway, one or the other of us can sleep in the basement when we need a good night's sleep. Hopefully something will shift soon and Melina will start sleeping better. At this point I don't know what else to do!

My video-enabled baby

I'm sick of writing about sleep. I know at some point I will pour out on this blog all the oily black horror that was Thursday night's failed attempt at "crying it out" (complete with Jennifer fleeing south on the freeway at 3:00 a.m.), but I can't do it now. So here's a nice little video of Melina to keep you occupied in the meantime.


Video Sharing at DropShots.com

Sleep Update

Only for those who are truly interested in the minutiae of infant sleep...

We have made limited progress on the sleep front. Melina will now sleep in her crib for naps, and it *usually* takes less than 15 minutes to get her to fall asleep. Since I installed a fan for white noise next to her crib, she has been waking up every 40 minutes instead of every 20 minutes - I guess that's a 100% improvement (or is it 50%? I was never good at math.) But it's very, very rare that she will nap for more than one hour, unless I'm lying in bed next to her.

She now goes to sleep in her crib around 8:30, which is still far too late, according to "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child," a book that I have very mixed feelings about. I think "Healthy Sleep Habits, Guilty and Confused Parent" would be a better title. Anyway, apparently she should be going to sleep around 7:00 - or even 6:00! That's not going to happen. As it is, she will sleep for an hour, wake up (having tossed out the binky), go back to sleep immediately, wake up around 10:00, go back to sleep after some intervention, wake up at 11:00, eat, and then not go back to sleep in her crib at all. At that point she comes into our bed and sleeps either soundly or not very soundly, with a few feedings in the middle of the night.

DH has proposed starting a "cry it out" program tomorrow night. After about a month of sitting next to her crib for most of the evening, I am ready to give it a shot. Several of the women on my iVillage baby board have had success at CIO, with less pain than they anticipated. I am still resisting it. I have taken what the Sears Baby Book says to heart - that CIO will break the bonds that bind us, and probably send Melina into several years of therapy down the road.

I read what Doppelganger wrote about her feelings of depression after her baby finally started sleeping well. I so understand. I really love waking up in the middle of the night and seeing Melina's almond eyes looking up at me, and I even love her pulling my hair and scritching me with her little claws all night long. I know I'll still get to sleep next to her once in a while - probably for naps - and I'll be seeing her at night when I feed her. But this will be the end of a really nice era. Soon she'll be applying to colleges...

Battle of the sleep books

I've been reading far too many books about infant sleep lately. Here's a blog entry by someone on my "baby board" that describes the problem much better than I can in my sleep deprived state:

50 Books: BOOKS: All I Want for Christmas Is a Good Night's Sleep...