Sleep Training: Phase Two, Day Five, or The Great Leap Backwards

Sigh.

Calliope woke up two hours earlier than usual. I think it's because of the extremely dry air in concert with the last stages of her cold -- the thick, sticky mucus that's hard to cough up. Although the book says to try to avoid feeding earlier than usual, it also says that if they are really hungry, go ahead and do it to avoid having them all the way awake and screaming -- harder to put them down again.

If you consider a face splitting grin when I walked over to the crib to be wide awake, which I do, than that was a moot point. But she never really resists going back to bed after a feeding, even if she is awake, so I didn't worry about that. I fed her the two and a half ounces and put her back to bed without a problem (unless you count hopping in and out of bed to suction her nose or offer the pacifier after a bout of coughing to be a problem). But then she woke up at 5 am, just a half an hour later than her usual nighttime feeding.

And I just didn't feel like making another bottle. So I nursed her for seven minutes, just until the gulping slowed down a bit. Of course I have no idea how many ounces that was, but it was enough to take the edge of her hunger for sure. She's a pretty fast and efficient nurser so my bet is that it was at least a couple of ounces. I tried just lying her in the bed next to me afterwards, but she was staring at the digital display of my alarm clock and not showing signs of sleep, so I brought her back to the crib. Where I'm pretty sure she was awake for a long time -- certainly seemed like ages of cooing. Finally we both fell back to sleep.

We slept in until 8:30, instead of 7, because frankly, we'd been up way too much to get up at 7 -- all the quick trips to find the saline nose drops, or to suction her nose again, or even just lying there listening to her coo... it takes a toll!

So I guess we are screwing the schedule for today. I'm promising myself to get or order a humidifer today. I had the vent in the air conditioner on all night, but some crappy neighbor of mine smoked a cigarette in the hallway last night -- HATE THAT!!!! SMOKE IN YOUR OWN DAMN APARTMENT OR GO OUTSIDE!!! -- so then that was one more thing keeping me awake, the smell of cigarette smoke wafting through the apartment.