Night, night!

So my last post was a bit of a downer and for good reason...my baby was crying and it was making me miserable. Well, that lasted all of 3 nights (don't get me wrong, they were 3 miserable nights).

Last week Nicolette magically started going to bed with no tears.  Now, I lay my sweet baby down and she doesn't start crying as I approach the crib or wiggle and roll onto all fours as soon as I set her down or pop up to standing and reach out and cry.  Instead, my sweet girl stays on her back and looks at me as I snuggle her little blankie around her.  As I tuck her in she smiles at me and I get to stroke her sweet face say good night and tell her how much I love her and how I'll be right here when she wakes up.

For those of you who have never struggled through bedtimes with little ones you will never fully understand the sweet relief that this brings to me. I feel like a new person and my night time anxiety is so much better.  I do not believe that Crying it Out was what solved our problems.  I 100% believe that Nicolette's bedtime anxiety and former night wakings were due to her developmental milestones. Once Nicolette became a pro at crawling and standing that the night wakings nearly stopped but we still struggled with going to bed. Now that Nicolette has pretty much mastered walking, the fight to go night-night has seemingly ended. I believe that her little brain has just been working overtime at night trying to figure this mobility thing out and now that she's moved from walking to running (yes, she started trying to run this week, not well but she's trying) she figures that there probably isn't too much more to worry about so this sleeping thing might not be so bad.

Regardless of what the cause was I'm so happy to be where we are now.  I don't dread bedtime anymore and don't have the horrible anxiety before, during and after bedtime that I used to have.  We're all sleeping better and are still blessed beyond belief!