The Struggle Has Ended

For a while now, I've been wanting Claire to go to sleep on her own. Before then, we would swaddle her and then rock or walk her to sleep while singing to her. That was fine, but it sometimes took a while. And then, when she began fighting it by arching her back, it was no longer fine. It was quite a struggle, and it was not any fun at all.


One week I talked to my mom, Jennifer, and Mel about getting Claire to go to sleep by herself. I talked to other friends here and told everyone that I was going to start the following Monday with my plan of getting Claire to go to sleep by herself. I geared myself up for it. But Sunday night I chickened out.

So the struggle continued. Sometimes, after trying to get her to sleep, I just put Claire in her crib or in her swing out of frustration while she was still awake. Twice at night, and once in the day, she did go to sleep by herself!! I was so excited! But other times she did not just go to sleep. So the struggle continued.

The other part of this story is that, after my numerous failed attempts to get Claire to go to sleep, I would have Jordan try. And Claire would always go to sleep INSTANTLY in his arms. It never failed. He had the magic touch! Finally, I told him he just had to come home every three hours and get Claire to go to sleep. Too bad that couldn't happen!

Well, last Saturday both Jordan and I had finally had enough of the struggling from Claire. We decided we would start then and there. She cried herself to sleep for her first nap after that, but then she did GREAT for four days! I was sooooo happy and excited! Yesterday and today Claire has had a couple of crying spells, but overall she has done very, very well. It looks like she was ready to become a tad bit independent. She surrendered! She waved the white flag! And I couldn't be happier!

As for other news, Claire is 17 pounds and 26.75 inches long. She is trying hard to crawl. And she likes playing underneath the coffee table.