She did it!

Well, after almost 5 months of sleeping in her swing in our bedroom we finally put Ava to sleep in her crib for the night on Saturday. It has been a long time coming but I have no regrets for letting her sleep in her swing as long as she has. I think because of her torticollis she was much more comfortable sleeping in her swing and she has always slept great in it so we didn't want to force the crib sleeping until we felt it was necessary. Over the past 2 or 3 weeks she has been wiggling around more in her swing and lifting her head up so that was the first sign of her needing some more space and wiggle room. We knew it was going to be tough the first night or two because we are breaking her of so many things that she is used to having to fall asleep (being cradled in her swing, the swinging motion, paci, snuggly, and sleeping by our bed). Now that Mike is done with school and visitors have gone we decided Saturday was going to be the day. We have read Richard Ferber's book and wanted to try the "progressive waiting approach" where you lay them down in the crib (with no sleep aids) and you check on them in increasing time intervals if they are crying. Many friends have used this method and we were hopeful that it would work and quickly at that. I didn't want the crying to be prolonged any longer than it had to and I wanted her to be able to fall asleep completely on her own so that she could get herself back to sleep when she wakes in the middle of the night. So we braced ourselves for a long night on Saturday. I had butterflies all day long just thinking about it. Hearing Ava cry is the worst sound to my ears and I was not looking forward to it. When we layed her down in her crib for the 1st night she smiled back at us and seemed pretty awake. The smile didn't last long but it was really cute and I took it as her way of saying "mom and dad it's going to be ok, I still love you". I had to remind myself of that constantly while she was crying. She did cry for quite awhile that first night until she finally put herself to sleep. Mike had the 1st shift and so he went and checked on her during the toughest part. I could tell it was hard on him because I told him that I wanted to go and walk the dog to get out of the house while she was crying and he didn't want me to go. These kinds of things cannot be done alone and take total teamwork. I was not surprised at how long it took her to fall asleep the first night but I am surprised that she slept as well as she did once asleep. She woke up a few times off and on but most of the time she would just put herself back to sleep without us having to go in. There was only one time that I needed to continue to check on her but it only lasted maybe 30 minutes and then she was back asleep till the morning. Our 2nd night was last night and she did even better! She went to sleep within only a minute or two of fussing and she slept till 5:30!! I let her cry for a little while but then fed her because it was close to feeding time anyway and she didnt seem like she was going to go back to sleep. After I fed her she fell asleep again and slept in her crib till 9! We have not slept that late in a very long time. It was so nice! We will see how she continues to do, as I am sure there will be some setbacks, but considering what a big change this has been for her she has done remarkably well and I am very proud of her. :)