Abby Time

It's once again been demonstrated to me that Abby will do things when she's darn well ready to and not a minute before. Nate and I have been talking about changing the way we put Abby down at night (naps are the next step) in the hopes of making it easier on Nate when I'm not there as I'm normally Abby's main putterdowner (yep, I like that word!). Our deal was that I would nurse her and then slowly start rocking her less and less before putting her down in the hopes that eventually I could nurse, rock for comfort for a few minutes, then put her in bed awake to have her fall asleep on her own. I figured this would take a while as we normally rock her to complete sleep.

The last few nights it's been a real adventure in Abby antics as she stretches, refuses nursing then cries because she wants back on to nurse, needs her paci right NOW, etc. So tonight I mentally prepared myself for a long putterdowner (hee!) session. On top of that she got really fussy after dinner (as she was tired) and we ended up giving her a bath earlier than normal which meant that our nighttime routine got started off and finished earlier than normal. So I nursed Abby while she was pretty much wide awake, went into the nursery and rocked her until her eyes got tired, put her in her crib where she promptly woke up, and picked her up to rock her again. Not two minutes later she was stretching and fussing in a way that tells me she wants out of my arms. So I put her in her crib, duck out of sight as I tend to trigger cries when she sees me and I'm not doing what she wants, and eventually leave the room while she's wide awake.

Nate and I went out on the back patio to play chess while I listened to her playing around in her crib. I figured in a short time one of us would pause the game to put her down as I figured she'd start crying soon. After an intense round (I 'almost' beat him!) I realized that Abby was quiet. Huh. She totally put herself to sleep. This is honestly the first time she's ever done this while in her crib. I'm flabbergasted. I know that tomorrow night will probably not be the same as tonight, but Holy Hannah I didn't expect the first go-round of putting herself to sleep to go so well! It's just another reminder that Abby likes to do things when she wants to do them and not a minute before. It's a great lesson for me to learn patience as my schedule no longer dictates my life. :-) I wouldn't have it any other way!