Most Unnatural

8:00 pm read a book.

8:05 pm begin with a light bounce (i.e. sitting on the exercise ball while holding her in my arms). Let Lauren know it’s bed time.

8:10 pm put her in the crib. The crying begins. I sit down next to the crib to keep my hand on her chest and make “shhhhh” noises as she cries and rolls around. My hand is there to comfort her and keep her from rolling over. When she rolls over, she ends up banging her head into things (not on purpose) making it worse. With Abigail we swaddled her for this exercise. For Lauren we left her un-swaddled so she could get her blanket in her mouth (or fingers) for soothing. The crying continues.

8:26 pm I take her out and bounce some more. She quiets down significantly, but continues to break out into bouts of tears. I’m tempted to continue bouncing until she falls asleep then slip her back into the crib, but I know better. She’s obviously tired. Maybe she’s close.

8:35 pm I put her back in the crib. The crying continues, but starts to cycle between crying and quiet.

8:45 pm she’s almost entirely stopped crying, but she’s moving somewhat so she’s not asleep.

8:50 she’s stopped moving and all seems quiet. I stop shhhhshing, fold up the crib side, put another blanket on her and leave.

It seems to have worked.

– b