sleep training

Have I mentioned that we've had a terrible time with sleeping lately? Duh, you say, that's what happens when your kid has an ear infection, you say.

Except it was more than that. First it was the time change. Then the cold that turned into the first ear infection we didn't know about. Then Baby started calling for "Daddy" when she'd cry at night (which she'd not done before and The Hater couldn't stand it). Then we've had company just about every weekend since the time change. (So why bother starting training when you know that you can't let her scream over the weekend?) Then the second ear infection that made her have fevers for about 5 consecutive nights. It's just been a mess.

I'm feeling chronic tiredness. But it's almost to a giddy point, so it's pleasant.

When she's in bed with us The Hater and I are both on our edges of the bed. She takes up about 60% of my pillow and sleeps perpendicular to me with her feet in The Hater's face. She scoots me off my pillow and kicks him all night long. Then she'd wake up and cry, or reach over and touch my face to make sure I'm still there, or kick the covers off of everybody, or lean over and smash her lips to my face and whisper, "Wuhd You, Mommy". I took what I consider to be really good pictures of her sleeping in our bed. She looks so sweet that you almost forget you haven't rested in weeks because of her.

Our last set of visitors (The Dorks) left early Monday morning. She was still fevering Monday night, so we decided that we would wait to go cold turkey to get her sleeping by herself again. I consulted the greatest book ever (see below) and The Hater and I formatted our own cold-turkey plan to get her sleeping in her room again.

Here's how it's played out since then:

Okay, so Tuesday night she screamed/cried for 1h 40m when we first put her down. Then around midnight she woke up, we changed her silently and left the room, and she screamed for 1h 40m+. It was a long night.

Last night she screamed for 22 minutes when I put her down. Around midnight she woke up, we changed her silently and left the room, and she screamed for about 25 minutes. Much better.

Tonight I put her down and she didn't scream. I walked out and The Hater and I looked at each other blankly. Then she screamed... for three minutes. Total.

Moving in the right direction. Thank goodness for my most excellent Mommy friend who told me this would be the most important parenting book I would need when I was pregnant:

Dad keeps suggesting that we move her from the toddler bed (or PNP, where she's sleeping now) into the queen size bed in the other room so we can lay down with her every time she needs to go to sleep, every time she wakes up in the middle of the night. He's convinced that's what we should do because that's what they did with me. I'm very nicely telling him that's a terrible idea, but they think we're heartless.

Everybody just tries to do the best for their kids, but short of flagrant safety issues, nobody really knows what the "right" thing is to do 100% of the time.