First overnight and some much-needed rest

On Saturday, we went to Dallas to visit my grandparents and so that Hal could go to the UFC fight that evening. Ella, Hal, my mom, and I all loaded up about half of the house (that's what you do when you have an infant) and headed off for our two-day excursion. Ella did beautifully the entire trip, even only waking up once that night in the hotel room. It was very strange to see her sleeping in a queen-sized bed all alone, surrounded by pillows at the edges of the bed, as if those would keep her safe in the event that, on this particular night, she learned to roll over multiple times--thankfully, she did not.

On the car ride back, she had a meltdown about 30 miles from home--the result of two days spent visiting with doting great-grandparents, many hours in the car, and staying in a new place. Poor thing, she was exhausted.

On top of that, Hal and I decided that last night, after we returned from our trip, was the first night we would implement the Denbar Sleep Trial Part One. To be brief, we were going to let Ella cry until she fell asleep, AFTER we had gone through the nightly routine (bath, swaddle, nursing, bed) and spent an appropriate amount of time snuggling and soothing her. This seemed impossible to me, but I just kept telling myself that getting her to sleep only to awaken as soon as she was put in her crib, and then having to fight that battle over and over was getting neither of us anywhere good. She wasn't getting good rest, and neither was I. I could tell she was overtired during the days, and I am a firm believer in allowing her the opportunity to learn to soothe herself and fall asleep on her own.

With that said, she was so tired after the trip that she went into her crib at 8:00 without protest, fussed for 4 minutes and then slept until 3:00 AM. She then went back in her crib around 3:20, after nursing, fussed on and off for 40 minutes and fell asleep until 7:00 AM. Now, this first attempt went well, I think, because of her complete exhaustion from the weekend. I hate that she was so tired that she couldn't put up a fight, but I didn't mind the sleep we all got for one second. I woke up to a happy, smiling, giggly girl this morning, and it was a perfect start to the day.

Next Up: Denbar Sleep Trial Part Two--Successfully Completing the Morning Nap