A Mommy Confession

Okay, it's time for some mommy confession time. 

When it comes to getting Delaney to sleep, I am a BIG FAT FAILURE.

It's true, and don't try to make me feel better about it.  What's crazy is that before I had her, I was dead set in my ways.  I worked at a daycare, worked as a teacher, and in my mind, when it was time for an infant to go to bed, come hell or high water, they were going to bed.  If that meant they had to scream for an hour, so be it because I was a firm believer in the "cry it out" method and don't even TRY to talk me out of it.

And then Delaney was born.

Darn you with your cute adorable toes

This girl is what you would call a "cuddler". 
Big time.  And guess what?  I love it.  Love it, love it, LUV it. 

Until naptime and bedtime roll around and then it gets a little old (I know, I KNOW, I will miss these days of cuddlethons and trust me, I embrace it as much as humanly possible until it is time to put her in crib, and she still wants cuddle time.  She would be perfectly content sitting on my lap with her paci watching Elmo until about 11:00 at night, and then if I just want to hold her while she slept all night, she'd be perfectly fine with that. 

Right now our current evening routine looks a bit like this:

5-6 Daddy's home!!!!  Play, play, play, Show daddy all the exciting new tricks of the day like walking all the way across the room with her little walker.

6-7: DINNER time and bath time



This is your bath picture- no nudie patoodie baby pics

 on my blog, thank you very much

7:00- Bedtime routine begins, including diaper change and pj time.  Everyone gets a little nervous trying to perceive how the evening will look, including the dog.

7:15-7:30- Bottle time.  This is it.  Will she fall asleep while taking the bottle?  This works about 1/3rd of the time.  It used to always work.  Always.  Now she's outgrown it and when she's done with the bottle, she's ready for more playtime.

7:30-9:00  This hour and a half is usually a blur that I block out of my mind until it rolls around again the following day.  It consists of some rocking, some cuddling, some intense screaming when I attempt to let her cry it out, checking in, soothing, unpeeling her hands from the top of the crib since she's standing up screaming, and laying her back down in her bed, finding the paci she threw across the room in anger and putting it back in her little mouth and usually some more rocking.  It also includes a lot of singing hymns and Bible songs to her in order to keep my sanity.

Del sleeping on her great-grandma's lap...as long as she's being held, she's a happy girl

Now, if we're lucky the rest of the night is as follows as told from Delaney (I'm guessing):

11:00 pm- "4 more ounces of bottle, please...."

3:00 am- "HELP!! MY PACI CAME OUT OF MY MOUTH AND EVEN THOUGH IT'S LAYING RIGHT NEXT TO ME, I CANNOT PUT IT BACK IN MY MOUTH BY MYSELF.  I NEED HELP!!!  Oh, okay, thanks..."

If we're not lucky, the 3:00 routine happens about every 45 minutes and often results in more snuggles.  This only happens about once every two weeks.

It kind of shocks me a little that this her evening routine.  Now, I will say, I think it could be worse.  She is not up every hour (with an exception now and then) and she DOES sleep in until about 8 am, so she usually gets 12 hours of sleep a night. 

It just shocks me that I can't just throw in her bed, give her a kiss, and tell her I'll see her in the mornin'.  We don't really go on date "nights" because I'm afraid if we're not home by 7 for the evening routine, everything could be thrown off and she'll take longer to go to sleep. Not that any of this is her fault- she cries for her mama and her mama comes running in like a sucker ready to snuggle with her little chubby arms and legs and calm her baby down. 

And although I have failed at bedtime, I do have plans for the next baby (no, I won't be preggers anytime soon).  With the next baby, I will just lay them down every night and they'll go sound asleep 'cause they have been sleep trained and have cried it out enough times to know I'm not coming in to save them. 

Unless they are also a cuddler...