STW 2.0 Day 5

Thursday night, day five, was the worst night yet in STW 2.0. Technically on day five we should have let Annie cry for 40 minutes. With my new plan however, I was determined to continue laying her back down every time she stood up. In theory she would eventually be too worn out to stand and I would win, right?

Let me give you a little background first. For all of her naps this week I have been using this tactic and Annie as tackling dummy has been responding quite well. Twice she has taken morning naps of over two hours, which as any of you with kids know, is a dream come true. Think of all the vacuuming I got done. Also, as of today, I have only let her sleep in my lap once all week, and that was yesterday when Aunt Dani flew in from New Hampshire. I think we can chalk this blip up to over excitement.

With this in mind, I thought last night I would be victorious. At 3:30 Annie woke up screaming. When I went in her room she was in her usual corner, standing and contemplating the easiest route of descent, like a novice climber stuck on Everest. My first few attempts at putting her back into sleeping position worked well and she appeared to calm down, but the next thing I knew she would start screaming again and sit up. This went on for about a half hour and then a little after 4 a.m. I brought out the big guns.

When Annie puts her Bob (pacifier) in her mouth by herself she settles much easier than when I pop it in. With this in mind I decided to put multiple Bobs in the crib with her. The strangest thing happened. For the next thirty minutes she held a Bob in each hand (left hand pink, right hand green) and switched back and forth every minute or so. The good news was that we wasn’t sitting up and standing anymore; the bad news was that she was so preoccupied with musical Bobs that she never fell asleep. Finally, at 4:30 I gave in and fed her. She quickly slid off to sleep and I crawled back to bed to try and rest before her usual 7:00 a.m. wakeup call.

I’m going to use the same technique tonight, hoping to wear her down. I doubt this can last much longer as the novelty of standing up surely ends by the time you learn to walk. At what age does that happen?