Empty nest

The night before last, Hope had one of her worst nights. Through the evening until 1:00 a.m., she was up every hour and, although I tried everything else, she would not go back to sleep for me without being fed (well, suckling anyway). Finally, at the end of my rope from fatigue, John took over. He took her to the basement, let her cry while he sang to her, and she slept until 5:30. He didn't sleep so well on the floor of course. Yesterday morning we decided it was time to move her into her own room.

Emily started waking up every hour right at the same age. It must be something about my kids. And when we moved Emily out, as sad as it was for us, she did sleep a little better (Emily was never a great sleeper until about 15 months old). So, I did a quick organize of Hope's room last night and put her to bed in the big crib. It was sad for me. Of course, she didn't seem to care at all. Nice for the ego.

She slept through the evening. She woke up at 11:00. Then she woke up at 1:00. I fed her both times. I wanted to see what would happen and also I was just too tired to try the crying and singing thing (I'd tried it at her nap time and she was unbelievably stubborn - after an hour and a half I finally fed her. She was asleep in 30 seconds. Clearly this is something that John may have to do since she seems to know quite well what is growing out of my chest.). After the 1:00 feed, that was it. I heard her blowing raspberries sometime in the middle of the night but she put herself back to sleep. I didn't hear from her until 8:30 this morning.

Sweet sleep. I've missed you.