...the baby is sleeping. For those of you who don't know I have had challenges with Avery and sleeping since she was born. A typical day would be three (if she took all of them) half hour naps, bedtime at 7:00 pm, wake up about every one to three hours and finally be up for the day at 7:00 am. I'm staying at home, so I figured it was okay, but it was really starting to wear on me.

I've talked to several moms of babies Avery's age, older kids and even younger babies. It kills me that younger babies are sleeping more. I also talked with our pediatrician, who I am still trying to decide if I like her, about the issue and she said that once Avery started solids she should sleep better.

So, we started solids...nothing, same old same. Then, we started supplementing with formula as well....nothing. Ack, I just went along with the flow. Next, I did what most mom's do and bought a baby advice book. I still haven't read through it all but one piece of advice was to know the signs of tiredness to avoid overtiredness. So I think I'm getting pretty good at that, but sometimes she will be overtired and rubbing her eyes and that's when I know I need to rush upstairs. This book, Healthy Sleep Habits for a Happy Child also tells you if your child isn't sleeping well to put them to be about a half hour earlier until you get the right bedtime, which means they are sleeping through the night.

Avery took great naps while we were in New York, don't know why but she did. So again I talked with mommies and got advice on "Crying it out." Ahhhh this is what I was dreading! I am so not the kind of mommy that wants to hear her kid cry, but then again I don't think most mommies enjoy their baby sobbing. But from the start I just didn't think I wanted to "Ferberize/Cry it out" with Avery. Joel couldn't handle it either, so I knew it would be doubly hard for me not having someone tell me to stay out of her room and let her just cry.

The same day I talked to some mommies I laid Avery down for her nap, as usual making sure her tummy was full, turning on her humidifier for some "white noise", turning on her crib toy for music and rocked her to sleep. After I put her in bed about 10 minutes later she awoke, so I decided I would try to let her cry. I patted her back and went downstairs, she was just a little fussy and I went up about 10 minutes later to rub her back and soothe her, and give her her paci, which worked for all of 2 minutes. I waited another 10 minutes and at this point she was really crying, so I figured to scrap it and maybe try again another time. She was very tired so I rocked her all the while she was whimpering, I felt horrible but she did end up falling asleep.

After that day, I don't know if she heard me and the mommies talking about "Ferberizing" or just didn't want to go through it again, but she had all three of her half hour naps, which was great. That same night we put her down at her new bedtime as of the past few weeks 7:00 pm and she slept until midnight, then went back down until 3:00 am and was up for the day at 7:00 am!! This may not sound great, but this is leaps and bounds for us.

Yesterday, she had one half hour nap, one TWO hour nap and another half hour nap. That's right two hours, that is very very rare. But it gets better: last night she went to bed at 7:00 pm, got up at 11:00 pm, I fed her and she was down until 6:00 am. This means she got up once, that's right people only one time and that was to eat. "Healthy Habits," the book I am still reading says it's okay for them to be hungry from 4-6 hours after being asleep so this was a great night! Thank you God!

So again, I am not sure how things will go from here, but she's taken a half hour nap this morning and is now going on almost two hours nap as I type. Thank you everyone who has given me advice and prayed for me and Avery. At last, the baby sleeps!!!