Sleep Update

As many of you know we have been working on Meridian's sleep for the past week. It was not an easy decision for us to come to, yet one that we really felt necessary for our sanity and especially for our marriage.

The first night was horrible! Probably more so for me than for her, but none the less, it was awful. I cried right along with her and sent my hubby in to her every five, ten, fifteen minues so that my heart would possibly break less. At the end of two hours, all was silent and for once she fell asleep on her own. It should be noted that we consistenly checked on her and Meridian is not a "crier" meaning not screaming to the point of not breathing. Instead she just whimpers off and on. We realized after that first night that we missed her bedtime by a couple of hours that night, thus why it took her so long to fall asleep. The next night was only a half hour of crying. The following twenty minutes. Tonight, maybe ten.

We finally feel that we are getting some time together at night without having to rush to her crib, pick her up, and rock her to sleep. She is still struggling a bit with waking up between eight and midnight, but is learning how to put herself back to sleep if she does.

Our next step will be night weaning, but I am in no rush really to do that, as I let Zoelle do that pretty much on her own right after she turned a year old. I am curious how I should do it though when we do get there? Right now, and this is a first for me to admit on my blog (as I've always held back out of fear of criticism), when Meridian wakes up at night, we bring her to bed with us and co-sleep the rest of the night. That is a decision we came to after I was just way too exhausted to get up, go nurse, and come back to my bed at night. I would find myself falling asleep in the rocking chair, and not getting any sleep at night. The parital co-sleeping has worked well both times with both of our girls. We effortlessly transitioned Zoelle to sleeping on her own completely at a year. However, I think for Meridian it might be just a bit harder. I would really like her to be sleeping thru the night at or around a year. So if any of you co-sleepers, or partial co-sleepers out there have any ideas, I would welcome them!

Thank you to everyone for the advice, love, and prayers. Keep praying!!