Operation Sleep: The Seventh Night

As I mentioned, last night was the first night of the final phase of our sleep plan. Here are the rules for the final four days:

Nights seven, eight, nine and ten. Don't pick her up, don't hug her. When she awakens after 11 p.m., talk to her, touch her, talk some more, but don't pick her up. Rub and pat only. No feeding either, obviously. She will fall back to sleep. Repeat the rubbing and talking when she reawakens. By the end of the ninth night, she will be falling back to sleep, albeit reluctantly for some babies and toddlers, with only a rub and a soothing voice.

I'm happy to report that my trepidation last night was unfounded (although the excessive consumption of freshly-baked cookies was still very therapeutic). Molly totally surprised me last night and was a sleeping superstar! She went to bed at 7 p.m. and then woke up at 11:02 p.m. to nurse (I give her a bit of grace period if she hasn't already been up). When she woke up again at 1:30 a.m. and started yelling for Mama, I went to her crib, tucked her back in (in spite of her protests), and shushed her and patted her for a couple of minutes until she calmed down. Then I climbed back into my bed and gritted my teeth, expecting to listen to Molly screech for a very, very long time. I sang her a couple of rounds of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" from my bed and, to my surprise, her fussing lasted a mere ten minutes or so. After that, she rolled over and went back to sleep. I didn't hear another peep out of her until 5:30 a.m. – I let her nurse and she went back to sleep. She was still zonked out at 7 a.m. and I actually had to wake her up for breakfast. I'm sure hoping this wasn't a fluke – I could really get used to this whole "sleeping more than two hours at a time" concept. ;) I think we might be in the home stretch ... but maybe I should eat a few more cookies, just in case. ;)