I am a wimp- part II

We had a hellacious weekend.

Isa decided that the crib was now a place to be feared. Instead of putting herself to sleep for naps or at night, as soon as her bottle was done she started crying. It was hard to see. But when Saturday night wasn't as bad as Friday, I thought that maybe CIO was going to work for us. Then came Sunday.....

Sunday it was as if Isa's evil doppleganger had taken over. My normally happy, sweet child was cranky and downright mean. Every toy or book she picked up was thrown angrily across the room. I eventually had to just remove most of the toys and books from the room altogether. I had to put the gate to the kitchen back up because she wouldn't stay out of the drawers and took to throwing the cookbooks as well. She hit me whenever she was frustrated (often!) and even hit the kitty. When I held her arms so she couldn't hit me, she'd try to bite me. She took a miniscule 1 hour nap, which didn't help the situation. I was beside myself- several bouts of tears and plenty of my own frustration.

I decided that if the trade-off for guaranteeing she stayed the entire night in her crib was this personality, then it just wasn't worth it. I'd rather have her end up in my room and get back happy Isa who took 3 hours naps and happily put herself to sleep.

So, I cracked. Sunday night I just rocked her after her bottle until she was asleep. It took about half an hour and then I layed her in her crib without a fuss. I didn't hear from her until almost 7 the next morning. Hmmm.....

I did the same rocking at her nap on Monday. Again, it worked fairly well, even though she still only slept for an hour. Luckily Bobbie & Quinn stopped by, so we had a lovely distraction post-nap. Monday night she was so exhausted that she pretty much fell asleep drinking her bottle and I had her in her crib within 15 minutes. Didn't hear from her until 6 the next morning!

She did well yesterday at Christina's house and slept all the way through the night yet again. Today she virtually fell asleep in the highchair during lunch so I figured I could try putting her straight in the crib after her bottle (as we used to do). Success! She rolled over on her tummy and took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Tonight was business as usual- in the crib after bottle, not yet asleep. She woke up once this evening from what I think was a bad dream (based on her crying). After only a few minutes of rocking, I was able to put her back in the crib.

So.... I guess I can't say that CIO was unsuccessful, because she's slept through the night 3 nights in a row and I've heard her fuss, then put herself back to sleep, on several occasions. And, now that she's back to her previous personality and back to the previous positive sleep habits, I don't feel quite so horrible about having done it, even though I didn't really follow through. How's that for wishy-washy?

And finally, I do know that I need to stop writing these loooonnnnnggg boring posts and start putting up some pictures. Maybe tomorrow. :)