9 Days Off

Paul has 9 days off for Thanksgiving (5 school days plus 2 weekends). How awesome is that! Often it seems like we are just passing Nadia off between the two of us and not having much time together especially since I go to bed and get up even earlier these days. He's awake when I go to sleep, and he's asleep when I am up in the morning. Allison's suggestion has been helpful. I've been letting Nadia's last nap take place later in the day which has helped shift her bedtime a little later. I need to keep working on that, but at least we're going in the right direction. Friday night was not a good night sleep wise. She kept waking up every 2 hours. When she woke up 2 hours after I put her down, I let her cry herself to sleep. When she woke 2 hours after that, I fed her since it had been 4 hours since I put her down. Then the same pattern continued where I let her cry the next time she woke up and then fed her the time after that.

Thankfully last night was a great night. We had dinner at Dave & Jen's house. Dave was Paul's advisor at Bucknell. Nadia fell asleep around 7pm in my arms while we were eating, and although she woke up briefly when I put her in her crib once we got home, she didn't wake up for a feeding until 2:45am!! That was awesome to have a one feeding night as the next time she got up was 6:15am. Although she still has some fussy times, she's been really good "in public" the last few days. Pop Pop (Paul's dad) said she was "an angel" when they watched her here at our house on Friday afternoon while I was conducting interviews. She was very, very good last night when we were with Dave, Jen and their 3 year old son, and she was very, very good in church this morning. I wish I could always have my little girl sleeping on me during church. It's the best feeling, but I know she'll be outgrowing that sooner than I would like.

First Snow

Well there has been a little snow here and there over the last few weeks, but at least at our house this is the first snow. Today was also Nadia's first time touching snow. I just opened our patio door and reached down and put some snow on her hand. She doesn't own a snowsuit or a coat for that matter (just a sweater and a hoodie) so she couldn't really sit outside in the snow, but it's not like she's old enough to enjoy it yet anyhow. Her Grandma is going to buy her a snowsuit; she's already gone shopping for one, but we aren't sure what size to buy. So when we go to Sears on Wed morning to get our family Christmas photo taken, we're going to have her try on a snowsuit or two so we know what size she should get.

In light of the snow, I decided not to go to the grant meeting especially since I would have been on the road for over 200 miles. I admit I am a chicken when it comes to driving in snow, sleet, or ice. I decided it was better to stay home than to take a chance on getting in an accident. Maybe if I had four wheel drive it would be different. I called Paul's parents to let them know as I was going to meet them at 8:15 at a McD's near the hospital where Paul's mom had her radiation treatment this morning. They should still get to see Nadia this week as they're supposed to come up around 1pm tomorrow so that I can make a 2nd trip to work for interviews. If the roads look okay later today, I might venture 10 minutes away to the frame shop as the guy called on Monday to say the pieces are ready to be picked up (cross stitch my sister made and one of my Grandmother's paintings).

From Nov 22 to Jan 11, I think I will only be making 6 trips to work - 3 for my 8am class and 3 for my Tues pm class (that includes the final exam). That is a very happy thought!!! I will need to prepare for my spring classes during that time (including one I've never taught before), but other than that I hope to be able to spend lots of time with my sweet little girl.

It's so easy!

Well Nadia has mastered the art of rolling over from her belly to her back. She now does it almost as soon as I get her on her belly. Rolling over from her back to her belly is still only done on rare occasions as for one thing she doesn't like being on her belly - so why should she roll that way?

I'm also happy to report that it's 5pm, and Nadia has only had 2 ounces of formula today (while I was teaching to supplement the 4 ounces I pumped last night). That's a BIG improvement. She has nursed much better today which is a big relief as lately she seemed to be showing a preference for the bottle. Well I'm sure she'll have lots of formula tomorrow, but that's because I'll be gone for 8 hours during the day. I looked for directions to my meeting tomorrow, and it's a little over 100 miles away (one way). It's going to be a longgg day. Hopefully the roads will be fine (in terms of snow).

Babywise revisited

It seems most people have a strong opinion about Babywise (if they're familiar with it) - either they think it's GREAT or they think it's AWFUL. I used to spend time on discussion boards, but since having Nadia I have stopped visiting any. I had to cut something out, and I would rather keep reading blogs than db's. Well I recently was invited to join "Circle of Moms" on Facebook, and I haven't spent time on it, but this morning I saw a post (as they sent a summary to my email) on sleeping through the night so I went and read the thread. MANY people responded and of course the usual books were mentioned by different people - Dr. Sears, Ferber, Babywise, Weissbluth, etc. and some people were again really in favor of Babywise and other cry it out methods and others posted that such methods are unhealthy for the child, etc.

I would say I am more neutral on the topic than most people seem to be. I gave it a try with Nadia. One thing I couldn't find in the book was how long to let her cry. When I read of someone letting their baby cry 5 hours, I think that's way too long. I could never let Nadia cry for 5 hours straight without trying to calm her down. Weissbluth says for a nap to let them cry at the most 1 hour. From ages 5-12 months he says there is no limit to how long you let them cry during the night. Of course all of this is assuming that baby's needs have been met (not hungry, not sitting in a poopy diaper, not sick, etc.). For ages 5-12 months Weissbluth recommends a bedtime between 6-8pm and a morning get up time of 7am (6am at the very earliest). He says that some babies need to be fed at most 2 times during that 12 hour stretch such as say midnight and 5am or something like that, but he says by 9 months old at the latest they should be able to go the whole 12 hours without any feedings. So that has been my current plan with Nadia is to make her go at least 4 hours at night in between feedings and to keep working towards 1 feeding and then eventually (by 9 months at the latest) no nighttime feedings.

If "sleeping through the night" means having one stretch of at least 5-7 hours, then she's been doing that most nights (of course not every night) since she was about 12 weeks old. When she was that young her bedtime was later so it felt more like she was sleeping through the night, but now that her bedtime has been earlier it hasn't felt that way to me, but technically she has been. Allison wisely suggested that I let Nadia have another nap at say 5pm and that would help push her bedtime back to 8pm instead of 6pm. Last night Paul let her have one last nap around 4pm so she didn't go to bed until 7:15pm. Unfortunately she had a poopy diaper a couple of hours later so last night wasn't a good example of having a nice long stretch. However, I am hopeful that if we can put her to bed later that she won't think 4:00am is the time to get up for the day. Yesterday when she woke up early I did nurse her but then she slept until 7:30 so that was pretty good. This morning she woke up at 5:40 and since I was leaving for work I decided to let her get up then so I would be able to nurse her. I think that's part of the problem. I know consistency is important. I want her to sleep in until 6 or preferrably 7am on T, Th, Sat, and Sundays but I don't mind when she gets up earlier than that on MWF as I prefer to nurse her before I leave rather than pump. So I really don't think we can work on this wake up time until the semester is over as then I can be consistent about not letting her get up before 6am, and I think I will shift that to not letting her get up until 7am if her bedtime is shifted to 7 or 8pm.

Anyhow it's not that I was opposed to Babywise when I read it, but it just didn't seem to work for Nadia. Maybe it was because she was premature and I was so worried about her gaining weight. I was scolded for letting her cry in the NICU as that would burn too many calories. I was encouraged to do demand feeding since we had to work so hard to get her to gain weight. As long as it took her to get back to her birth weight, technically she should have been labeled with "failure to thrive." Let me tell you I am VERY glad her pediatrician didn't use those words with me even though she fit the definition. If she had used those words, I am almost positive I would have given up completely on nursing. So I am glad no one used that label. I think it also had to do with her being rather fussy for awhile there - almost colicky. When I tried to let her cry to sleep instead of nursing her to sleep she would cry for an hour or more and still not go to sleep, and then she would be so worked up it would take me a long time to get her calmed down. Being overly tired makes it harder for little ones to sleep, and so it was a vicous cycle. She was getting almost no sleep during the day and not that much at night either. That was why I gave up on trying to follow Babywise awhile back. However, if we have another baby, I might try it again. I'm not opposed to it, but when Nadia was smaller it didn't seem to be what was best for us.

However, now I actually do follow some of the practices recommended by Babywise, Weissbluth, and others. For example, I carefully watch the clock but I also carefully watch Nadia. I have in mind based upon the clock when each nap time will start, but I adjust that in either direction based on her behavior. I look for things like yawns, rubbing her eyes, etc. as the signals to guide me, and nap times are now 90% of the time a breeze. Sometimes she doesn't cry at all. Most of the time it seems she feels the need to cry for at least a few seconds. It cracks me up as sometimes she really starts in a loud scream (not a little whimper) but by the time I have walked from her crib to the door of her bedroom she has already stopped crying. Rarely does she cry more than 3 minutes these days...except for when her schedule gets all messed up like yesterday when I went to the dentist. The same goes for when she is put down at night. I would say at least 90% of the time she puts herself to sleep these days, and 10% or less of the time she is nursed or rocked to sleep at any time of day or night. Her favorite way to soothe herself is to suck her thumb. She cries for a few seconds and then pops her thumb in her mouth and starts sucking away. It's sooo cute. Yay for thumbs! The only time she cries for an extended period of time is at night when she wakes up 2 hours after she has just been fed, and I just let her cry. Hopefully in the next few weeks that will stop being an issue as it is hard for me to listen to her cry that long, but I know she can go longer than 2 hours without being fed.

13 Pounds

Last night Nadia slept from 6pm to 1:30am, and then she woke up about 4:15am. I let her cry as that was only a little more than 2 hours after I finished nursing her. I am not sure how long she cried, but the next time I was aware of her crying (5:40), I went and got her and nursed her in our bed and then she slept another hour after I finished nursing her. I think it would help if she went to bed a little later. Any suggestions? She gets tired around 5pm, but we try to keep her up until 6pm. I really think she could just have one feeding a night if she'd go down a little later. I was talking to a friend in handbells who has an 8 month old, and she said she was told babies don't usually sleep through the night until they are at least 13 lbs so she thought it made sense Nadia hadn't been sleeping through the night previously. Her baby was over 10 lbs at birth so she was sleeping through the night by the time she was 3 months old. I guess that means Nadia's getting big enough now though. Well for now I'd just like to work on eliminating the second feeding.

Diaper Duty

While I was pregnant when I brought up the topic of diaper duty, Paul didn't even want to think about it or talk about it. I said well at least when you're watching Nadia while I'm teaching on Tuesday nights you will have to change her diaper! His first experience changing any diaper came in June in the NICU with Nadia. He actually changed one of her diapers before I did. I figured he needed the practice more than I did, LOL. Well since that point he hasn't complained about changing her diapers. She's been kind enough to time her poopy diapers so that Mommy has changed almost all of them. In fact I don't think he's changed a poopy diaper on his own yet although a couple of times when she had a HUGE one, he did help me out. Anyhow this weekend I heard him say something I never thought he'd say. I took Nadia upstairs to change her diaper. I didn't think to ask him to do it as I figure the only diapers he'll change are when I'm not home. He said to me when I came down that he would have changed it. He said that he doesn't mind changing wet diapers. The way he said it made me think he really wished he had changed her diaper - like he had missed out on something he wanted to do. Wow! I never would have thought he'd feel that way about changing a diaper. I don't expect he'll ever want to change any poopy ones when I'm available, but then again, who really does like changing those??? So I say way to go, Paul! He's such a great Daddy; he even seems to enjoy changing wet diapers. Amazing!!!

Last night Nadia slept a little over 6 hours the first stretch (from 7:15pm to 1:35pm). So I thought it would be a one feeding night. I should stop assuming that, LOL. She woke up about 4:20am which was only a little more than 2 hours since I finished nursing her. I let her cry a little, but at about 4:40 I went and got her and nursed her in bed awhile. Then I put her back down and she slept 90 more minutes (woke up right as I was leaving at 6:40am). I figured it was good if I nursed her once more before I left. I did pump for 10 minutes also before leaving. I am guessing I need to start pumping more if I want to get my milk supply up as drinking more water isn't doing the trick, and I haven't lost (or gained) weight recently so I don't think the problem is that I'm not eating enough. I really don't like pumping, but if pumping will get my milk supply up so that once the semester is over we can wean her off of formula that would be a good thing. I am kicking myself for throwing away all those $5 coupons I had for Enfamil. I falsely assumed those four cans of Similac would be enough. Nope. I already had to buy one can at full price, and I'd love to not buy many more if at all possible. When I start feeling badly about it though I just remind myself that for the first few weeks of the semester I was paying babysitters $72 a week; buying formula is much cheaper than that.

Ironic

I was thinking about how a few things that I desired in terms of Nadia's behavior in the past are now the opposite of what I desire. One example would be that the first few weeks of her life we had to work so hard to get her to want to eat. In the hospital while I nursed her my mom or Paul (whomever had pushed me in my wheelchair to the NICU), would jiggle her legs and arms and such in a struggle to keep the girl eating. She would rather have just slept. That has not been the case for a LONG time. The girl seems to want to eat ALL the time. Sometimes now I think - Nadia - you already want to eat again? Another example would be how it used to take forever to get her down to sleep at night. If it only took two hours that was a good thing. Now, I have to work to keep her awake! If she had her way, she'd go to bed at 5pm without any tears. I try to keep her up at least until 6pm. It cracks me up that I used to have to work so hard to get her to sleep, and now I have to work to keep her awake, LOL!

Friday night was a very good night. She slept 7 1/2 hours the first stretch so I thought it would be a one feeding night, but then she woke up only about 2 hours after the end of that feeding. I let her cry the first time she woke up (about 4:10am), but then when she woke up again an hour later I caved and went and got her at 5:15am. Mommy really didn't want to get up at 5:15 on a Saturday morning. :-( However that night was better than last night. She went down at 6pm and only slept 4 hours the first stretch, and then she only slept 3 hours the next. I let her cry for 30 minutes, but it wasn't working so I nursed her. I figured I was lying there awake listening to her cry so I would probably get more sleep if I just nursed her. However when she woke up again only an hour later, I let her cry that time. I got her the next time she woke up (6:00am). So at least we are down to two feedings a night, and I am still hoping we can get down to one feeding a night as I think that's all she really needs.

I'll add pics to this post later of Nadia in her dress she wore to church today. It's size 3-6 month and barely fits. She wore her shoes again. I love those shoes!!! I would like to get her some other tights. Before she was born I bought one pack of 3 pairs of white tights at Walmart; one has ruffles on the butt (rhumba tights). I would like to get her some different colored tights to match her different dresses.

Busy Day!

Last night Nadia went to sleep at 7pm and slept until 2:35am. WOOHOO! I nursed her for 30 minutes and thought this will be a one feeding night. Wrong. She woke up at 5:10am only 2 hours later. I was going to just let her cry a little so she could stay in bed until at least 6am as I know she can go longer than 2 hours between feedings, but since I was going to be away so much today, I decided I wanted to nurse her again. So I nursed her until 5:40 and put her back to bed. She slept until 7:30 so she got a little more than 11 hours of sleep last night! :-)

I left for work at 6:40am and spent about 30 minutes making copies of paperwork for the interviews. Then after I taught I drove home. Nadia was in the middle of her first 45 minute nap. After she woke up I fed her and then we headed to the grocery store. I used the Snugli for the first time. She liked facing out and seeing everything, and I liked having two hands free. She's outgrown the sling (at least the one I have). She started to fall asleep on the way home so I nursed her just a few minutes before putting her down for her 2nd 45 minute nap. While she slept I put away the groceries, made myself a sandwich for lunch, and made a chicken dish for dinner. Paul's parents came at 12:30. The doorbell woke her up. I changed her diaper and nursed her about 10 minutes before it was time for me to leave for work (again). She was unhappy. I assumed it was because I had stopped her lunch before she was done so I made her a bottle. She wouldn't take it. Let me tell you it was very hard for me to leave while she was so unhappy, but I had no choice.

I called on the way to work as I thought I had left the chicken in the oven. Well I had left it in the oven, but I had turned the oven off. So it was sitting uncooked in a cold oven. OOPS! Well that's better than burning it! Paul's mom said she cried about 10 minutes but then they were able to keep her happy if they walked her around the house. I left work earlier than planned as Paul wasn't going to be able to get home until after 6pm. I got home at 4:45 since I skipped the last interviews. I was sooo happy to see my little girl when I got home. I missed her!!! She was cooing and laughing for me. She was happy to see her Mommy. I am glad I'm not normally apart from her that many hours in a day.

I was supposed to go to a concert tonight. I had won a year's worth of free tickets from the local Christian radio station back in April. The first tickets were for the week I was in the hospital with Nadia after she was born. Paul's brother and niece used them instead. Tonight I was going to go with my friend. She called this morning and said something came up and she couldn't go. I haven't seen her in a couple of months. I guess I won't see her much any more now that we've moved. I was really looking to the concert also. She and I usually go to a few concerts a year, but I haven't been to any concerts in 2008. So anyhow I was really bummed as I was looking forward to seeing her and also really looking forward to the concert. These concerts really are a boost to me spiritually and emotionally. I could have gone by myself, but I would have felt really weird. Paul would have gone with me, but then we wouldn't have anyone to stay home with Nadia while she slept (she went down at 6:30pm). I called a couple of people to try to find two other people who wanted the tickets or maybe someone else to go with me, but the tickets just ended up in the trash can. It was too last minute to find someone else who could use them.

I wonder why it seems so awkward to go to something like a concert by yourself? Or maybe it's just me that feels too weird going alone. When I eat dinner alone at a nice restaurant (like when I'm at a conference), I bring a book to read while I eat and then it doesn't bother me as much to eat alone. Eating alone at home hasn't bothered me for years, but when I first moved to PA in 1996 I used to always read the newspaper while I ate dinner as that was a transition for me to eat my meals alone all the time. Of course I usually have company these days when I eat even if she's not exactly eating with me yet except for when I nurse her while I'm eating. :-)

Speaking of my little sweetheart, it was one year ago today that I found out my hCG had doubled (and was over 300). This was SUCH a relief as my hCG didn't go up properly with my first pgcy in 2005. I am still sooooo very thankful for our little miracle! Yes, sometimes I feel lonely as I go months without doing some like going out to lunch with a friend (and who knows it might be years until that happens again as I don't know anyone in our new area), but if I had to pick between having a close female friend or two to get together with now and then or a daughter - I'd pick a daughter any day of the week!!! Well speaking of my girl, since I'm not going to the concert I think I'll pump and go to bed. It's rare I stay up past 8pm these days. Once she starts sleeping through the night I'll probably shift back towards what used to be my usual bedtime of 9:30pm.

Mommy's Coming

I think the cognitive development that occurs in very young children within such a short time period is just downright amazing. Language development is the most profound. I look forward to discovering what words are in her receptive vocabulary and then later hearing her use more and more new words in her expressive vocabulary. Even in these four months I have seen evidences of her cognitive development in terms of things such as cause and effect. One example would be that for the last couple of months if I say "Mommy's coming" when I hear her stirring in her crib, then usually as long as I don't dilly dally (I usually go to the bathroom before I go in to nurse her), she doesn't cry. She knows I'm coming. I'm not saying she understands the words I am saying, I fully realize she just recognizes my voice and has figured out when she hears my voice I'll be there soon. There are many other examples I could give. The first one that I noticed when she was only a few weeks old was that she'd blink when I made a certain sound which I usually made before I kissed her on her cheeks. She was reacting ahead of time to my face coming in close to hers.

Last night was the first test of my plan to only nurse her twice during the night. The other nights she had only awakened twice. Last night she woke up at 2:11am which was only about 2 hours since I had finished nursing her after her first awakening. I let her cry. It was really hard to do as she cried for 40 minutes. I know some of you probably don't agree with my decision. I hadn't let her cry more than 20 minutes in over 2 months. She did fall back asleep eventually and then slept until 4:55am when I was happy to nurse her. She got up for the day at about 6:30am. So she got about 10 hours sleep last night instead of her new usual of 11 hours since she was crying for 40 minutes in there. Hopefully that won't happen often as it was hard for me to hear her cry that long and not go feed her even though I know at 4 1/2 months old she can go longer than 2 hours between feedings.

This morning she took her usual 45 minute nap, and then I took her to the Toyota dealer as I had gotten a notice more than 6 months ago about a recall of some bolts. She was a very good girl while we waited for them to replace the bolts (took more than an hour). I was going to do a little Christmas shopping afterward as the dealership is right beside a mall, but she fell asleep as soon as we got in the car so I didn't have the heart to take her shopping. We went straight home instead and even with me transferring her from the carseat to her crib she slept a total of 90 minutes which was amazing! This afternoon she only had one 45 minute nap so I guess altogether she got the same amount of total sleep from her naps (3 hours).

Well I have 3 more grants to review (17 done thankfully), and I am not going to bed until they're done so I'd better get back to that as I don't want to stay up late. Tomorrow will be a busy day as I'm teaching in the morning and then coming home and then going back for interviews from 1:30-4:40pm (which means I'll be gone from 12:45-5:25). Paul's parents are coming up after his mom's radiation treatment to watch Nadia for me until Paul gets home from school (about 3:45pm). The next 8 days are going to be hectic, but hopefully after that life will calm down some. One thing that will be a challenge is the nursing. It's a challenge to pump at work when I have a meeting that lasts from 1:30-4:40 straight, and it's not like I want to delay my arrival back at home by pumping at the end of the meeting. I am finding that nursing plus working outside the home is a tricky combination. My milk supply is not up to Nadia's needs. Unfortunately she now needs 12 ounces a day of formula. :-( We are already on the last can. So my plan not to buy any more is out the window. Well I just keep reminding myself that she's getting a lot of her milk from me, and that's a good thing. I'm doing the best I can with all I am juggling right now. Hopefully once the semeseter is over I can get my milk supply up as she won't be babysat by others very much at all during that month and only two days a week once the new semeseter begins. I have been drinking a lot more water, but it hasn't seemed to help yet.

E-mail

The first time I really started using email extensively was in 1996 when I moved to PA. I didn't know a single soul and was living alone for the first time (in a 2 bedroom apartment). Prior to that I had lived with two other women in a 3 bedroom townhouse near Annapolis, MD. It was an extremely lonely time as I started working in the summer when of course the teachers and students aren't at school so I was alone at work (except for seeing my secretary a little now and then) and alone at home. I wasn't one for using the phone much, and of course my bill would have been rather high as all the calls would have been long distance. So I started using email, and I loved it. I referred to it as my social life. It really was my only contact with other human beings aside from say the lady scanning my groceries at the store. Well I still really enjoy receiving emails from family and friends although I don't write nearly as many now that I have this blog, and I am much slower to respond since I just don't seem to have the time these days. I do have time to read them though. :-)

Well my feeling toward work email is getting more and more negative. I almost want to say it's sort of a love/hate thing, but I know "hate" is such a strong word to use. Yet I fully realize it's a necessary evil. For example, as chair of the search and screen committee I have written MANY emails the last couple of weeks as I've been trying to find volunteers to pick candidates up from the airport, take them to meals, etc. Also right now students are scheduling so I am getting many emails from advisees, and in actuality it is good that a lot of communication can take place by email so that I don't need to meet with all (I think about 80) of them in person every semester. However I don't like how much of my time work email consumes every week. I would say on an average day I receive 50 emails, and I do mean seven days a week. Sunday afternoon I checked my email, but then I didn't check it later that day and Monday morning I was greeted by so many emails because I had gone "too long" without checking it. It feels like I can never get ahead. Yesterday I had gotten up to date before I headed to work at 3pm, but when I got home at 8:15pm and checked my email, my box had filled up again. I started replying to the messages, but while I was answering them more came in. It's very frustrating! Well the semester will be over soon, and the flow of email will slow down during those weeks we have off in between semesters.

I am happy to say that we have now had 4 good nights in a row. We haven't had another 8 hour stretch like we did a few days ago, but we are down to 2 feedings a night, and Nadia is now sleeping 11 hours total instead of 10. She has been getting tired rather early. I'd rather her bedtime be around 7pm, but she's been wanting to go to bed closer to 6pm lately. That's fine for now since I get up early for work, but once the semester is over I am going to work with pushing that back as Mommy would like to sleep in a bit more (7am sounds heavenly). The early bedtime does work well for Paul as on Monday I put her down at 6pm before heading to handbells, and last night it helped as he put her down at 6:15 and got back to grading papers. Last night she woke up at 10:30pm for her first feeding and 4:30am for her second feeding. The only problem has been that I have been pumping when I get home (since she's already in bed), but then if she wakes up that early I haven't had quite enough milk for her since less than 2 hours have passed so I've nursed her and then given some bottle at the first feeding. I am used to ALL night time feedings just being nursing. This morning she was WIDE awake at 4:30; when I went in to feed her, she squealed with delight and started cooing. I put her down at 5:00 expecting her to cry, but surprisingly she didn't. When Paul went in to get her at 6:15 she was cooing away. I find it hard to believe she was awake (and happy) that whole time, but who knows. We are sticking with the rule that she can't get up for the day until at least 6am (and like I said eventually I want that to be 7am).

Sunday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon she also took one long afternoon nap instead of two short ones. The total length was actually longer than what the two put together used to be. So I think that's a good change as well. The 2 morning naps are still short (usually 45 minutes but sometimes only 30). Hopefully eventually she'll take one longer morning nap also. I am just glad she is done with the growth spurt or whatever was causing the night time sleeping problems. Really she just changed on her own back to sleeping better. We haven't had to let her cry very much at all. She still usually cries when she goes down for a nap, but often it's less than 5 minutes.

My dad is in Romania this week. He flew over on Monday and comes back on Sunday. I'd appreciate prayers for his safety!