Cry It Out, Part Deuce

When Thea was about 6 weeks old, she began sleeping 10-12 hours at a time at night. She did this at least 3-4 days a week and when she didn't she slept about 9 hours at a time. Let me also say that she is the easiest baby to grace this earth when it comes to going to sleep. Since birth, we have been able to put her down when she is tired and she goes right to sleep. Uh. May. Zing. 

Right before her 4 month appointment she had a few nights where she woke up every few hours (ie at 10:30pm, 12:30am, and/or 3am). The doctor said this could be indicative of a growth spurt if it happens from time to time but if it becomes a pattern...well, there is no reason for that. And from that point on, I think she has slept all night 3 times. She is now waking up every night between 1 and 2am. If I feed her, she goes right back to bed and sleeps till the morning. Although I'm tired, if she really needs to eat or snuggle or whatevs, I am more than happy to continue to provide for her. In fact, I consider it a blessing. That said, if we're waking up to have some fun, I was ready to leave this family get together a loooooonngggg time ago. 

Long story long, since no parent can seem to find the manual that can tell you exactly how to love and care for their child, cry it out has begun. Our doctor encouraged us to only allow her to cry for set periods of time based on her age. Welp, if anything can be said about Thea's personality based on cry it out, one might say she is persistent, confident, and an alpha (read: really, really uninterested in others ideas about how things should be handled). Have I mentioned that Mike has only awakened once while Thea has been crying? And that one time he woke up, he fell right back to sleep before she had stopped crying? Oh, to be a man. (Read: Mike has offered to bottle feed her numerous times, I just turned the offer down because I'm stupid, I mean, up anyway). 

The plan: more cry it out and if it continues to be useless, maybe add in a dream feed before I go to bed and see what happens. I mean, the possibilities are endless. I could abandon the family, Mike and I both can abandon the family, Mike and I can bring Matthew with us as we abandon the family, we could leave Thea at the firehouse, we could leave Thea at the hospital, we could leave Thea at Hobby Lobby. The world is our oyster.