But, I don't WANNA go to sleep!!

I'm tempted to start calling my lovely daughter "Caroline the Sleepless." Ever since she was a wee one, she has resisted sleeping with all of her might. Once she got past the initial "baby sleeps all of the time" stage (around 6-8 weeks old), she had her days and nights mixed up and then was colicky for weeks on end.... (It seemed like forever at the time, but it was probably for only 3-6 weeks, total). ;-) Everything I read informed me that my baby would be sleeping through the night by the time she was 4-6 months old... maybe even sooner! Other mothers proudly told me how their infants were sleeping through the night at "such and such an age..." My husband Ashley and I tried everything to get Caroline to sleep through the night, from letting her cry it out (which, to be honest, I had a really hard time with... but, I gave it a shot out of desperation!), to letting her cry for short intervals and then checking on her and then repeating the process, to swaddling her, to giving her a pacifier (she just kept spitting it out), to setting up a sleep routine, etc., etc., etc... Then one night out of frustration and exhaustion, Ashley suggested that we try bringing her into bed with us, and there she stayed for about 5 months. Of course, this wasn't an ideal solution since it meant her sleeping between us and Mommy not getting the most restful of sleep. But, it worked well for us until Caroline became a little more mobile and started kicking. And since I was breastfeeding her, at least all I had to do is latch her on (no more getting up and down to feed her every 1-2 hours) and I was able to get SOME semblance of sleep!



Well, to make a VERY long story shorter, we moved her into her crib when she was around 5 months of age, but she didn't really start sleeping through the night until she was around 9 or 10 months old! She is now 14 1/2 months old and for the last 3-4 weeks, we had FINALLY gotten to the point of being able to lay her down awake and have her fall asleep on her own. Ah, what a glorious experience! As you can imagine, we were quite the excited parents! Nights were once peaceful again... and no longer filled with lots of crying and rocking and patting to get her to go to sleep...



Then, starting this past Monday, our sweet, spunky little girl decided that she no longer wanted to go to sleep at her usual bedtime... So, for the past 5 evenings (including tonight), she has had to cry herself to sleep... I'm not sure what has brought all of this on, but I have had to fight back a feeling of panic... Our second daughter, Kimberly Nicole, will be making her grand appearance into this world in just 12 more days, and up until this week, I was feeling encouraged that I would at least have ONE who had learned the art of sleeping and mostly slept through the night...



I am praying that Kimberly will be more laidback than her big sis and actually LIKE to sleep! ;) Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to tell all of my friends and family members that our second born was falling asleep on her own AND sleeping through the night by the time she was 2 or 3 months old?! Ah, a girl can dream... ;0)



I will keep you posted.... :)