On Becoming "Baby Wise"

There was a time, right around when Wes and I were married that I told Wes that I needed, "at least 9 hours of sleep just to function." Although Wes never said anything about my comment initially, he has since poked fun at me calling me a princess. Looking back, 9 straight hours of sleep seems like an utter luxury. What does that even feel like? I thought the middle of the night ups and downs in pregnancy was preparing me for this lack of sleep that I'm going through right now. I'm discovering nothing can prepare a person for this - well maybe Navy Seals training, I hear they have it much worse.

Gywneth, although she's not the world's worst sleeper, is becoming more and more difficult to work with at night. The wide awake owl eyes at 1AM are cute, for about 5 seconds. She's also decided that she'll only sleep if she's nursed to sleep and then will only stay sleeping if she's incessantly rocked and bounched, which isn't only a bad habit, but it's not that fun for mom or dad. The worst is waking up to the day crying because I'm so tired. So, Wes and I have decided to call in the big guns and get her scheduled and today is the day we start, and so far the break in period is breaking us down. Our little girl is learning how to nurse, play and sleep on a schedule and the hardest part is the sleep. She can be asleep in our arms, a bomb could go off, and she'd never wake, but the moment she's put down in her crib, she's screaming. There's no faking this little one out - we've even tried fooling her by putting her down with a warm hot water bottle to simulate our body warmth. She's apparently smarter than that, and still wakes.

Hopefully in the next couple days, Gwyneth will have learned the following:
There is no such thing as "on demand."
Falling asleep on one's own is a good thing!
Nursing on a schedule is fun!
Nothing is better for everyone than a good night's sleep!
Who needs rocking?
Mom has other things to do than be breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack.
Moving out into her own room is a good move.

Maybe once that all happens, there might be a picture of us all together - smiling.