And she sleeps...

I am very pleased to report that my EIGHTEEN MONTH OLD finally sleeps. She has been sleeping good, UNINTERRUPTED, 12-13 hour nights now for a little over a week. She has dropped that weird 5-6am bottle that helped her not wake up as a grumpy little troll all by herself. That makes us both bottle-free and sleeping like real people for the first time in her life. I just wanted you all to know that. It only took a year of her crying it out, getting back on track, getting screwed up everytime she got sick or the time changed, getting back on track, randomly waking up at 2am to cry, etc. Something has finally clicked and she has realized that nighttime is for sleeping and that 5am snack is unneccessary. It really does make me wonder if she needed that snack though, since it's taken her so long to sleep this well. Anyway, I'm sure some expert would say that "no, she's just been in a bad habit and it's all your fault." Whatever. We're on track now. Now I have to be a productive human being because I'm getting the sleep that I have been SO desperately craving ever since I was pregnant with darling, dear Katie.

Resolutions

Okay, blogosphere, I want to hear your plans for the new year. I plan to eat more healthfully, trade Katie in for a baby that sleeps, and put Maddy on Prozac. Just kidding about the last two, although I have wondered aloud if it's too late to take Katie back. She's been a mess after being sick for a whole MONTH. (Two back to back colds and a stomach virus.) Last night was officially "let her cry and get back on track" night, which basically means if she pops up too early, I just ignore the noise. I'm fine if she wants a bottle around five or six am since she tends to need an extra long night to be a happy baby (I'm talking a 13 to 14 hour night), but if she is not ill or having a bad dream I refuse to get up at midnight, 3am, etc. She's fifteen months old, people. This is ridiculous. Last night it was her 3am wake-up call. It lasted until almost 5am. She is quite tenacious, I'll say that for her. And being her mother, I could tell it started with an "excuse me, I'm awake, service please" grumble that escalated into flat-out ticked off screaming because no one was at her beck and call the way I was for the last month because of illness. Once she stopped trying to wake the neighbors, she slept, popped up for that early bottle at 6:30 then back down until around 9. And woke up so sweet and happy that you never would have known that she and the shrieking devil from 3am were the same child. (Speaking of devil, she texted my brother "666" while she was playing with my phone once. It totally freaked him out. I, however, was not so surprised.) Anyway, let me know what your plan for 2009 is and I'll be filling in more details on mine when I am a bit more well rested. I leave you with this picture. This is my hope and prayer for my baby and myself tonight.