sleep

We've had some major sleep changes in our household lately!  Breanna is now sleeping through the night!  I have started this post several times, but never had the guts to publish it because I was certain it would jinx it, haha!  Breanna first slept through the night on January 3.  She got sick the following night though, and we had some ups and downs with her sleep for about a week following that.  Now that she is feeling better she has been consistently sleeping through the night (7pm - 6am) for a couple weeks!  It was actually a much simpler process than I thought it would be, which was nice.
I wanted Breanna to know that I would come to her and find out what was wrong at night if she needed me, but I also wanted her to learn that night was for sleeping, not eating.  So for a few days I began only feeding her for a few minutes when she would wake up at night to get her used to not being so full at bed.  She took to it really well and went right back to sleep after!  So, after doing that for about 3 days I decided it was time to stop feeding her altogether.  I was a bit nervous, but knew it was the right thing for our family.  We needed some sleep!  When she woke at night I would go in, reassure her and tell her I was there, make sure she was okay, and then tell her it was bedtime.  I then shushed her to sleep from right next to the crib.  I had already decided that I would try not to pick her up unless she started to really cry, not just fuss and whimper.  Thankfully she never got really upset, and I was able to shush her from the side of the crib without picking her up.  The first night she woke up 3 times.  The second night she woke up once, and the third she slept all the way through!  I was elated!  The 4th night she woke up at 4:30 and when I went in she had thrown up in her crib.  She didn't have a fever, so I cleaned her up and brought her to bed with Drew and I.  We had both already had this same stomach bug earlier in the week, so I wasn't too surprised she had gotten it.  The next day we could tell she was getting sick (we think she had bronchitis) so I was pretty flexible with night time cuddles, but still didn't feed her.  For about 2 weeks now she has been sleeping through the night consistently!  I have loved getting a longer stretch of sleep in now!  She generally gets up at 6 am, which is when I got up for work last year, so I'm feeling great!

Now, we are tackling naps!  Yesterday was the first day to work on this.  Breanna and I have fallen into the habit of taking a morning nap together, and I've known for a while it was time to stop.  In the beginning it was the only way I could get her to sleep for more than 30 minutes, and it quickly became a habit for both of us.  Breanna is the queen of catnapping!  She goes down in her crib just fine, but is up and ready to go 30 minutes later.  The trouble with this is that she's ready for another nap 1.5 hours later.  I figured that by napping with her in the morning I was just enabling that catnap behavior when I wasn't with her.  So this week, I decided that on Friday I was going to stop napping with her and not give her a pacifier to nap with.  She hasn't used a pacifier at bed for several months now and does great.  While sleeping with her I realized that when her paci falls out she wakes up.  While I'm there I can put it back in, but that doesn't help her learn how to get back to sleep on her own.  So, I figured I would see how she did without it.  Yesterday I put her down for a nap without it and she still woke up 30 minutes later.  Then about 2 hours later I put her down for a second nap and again she woke up after 30 minutes.  I managed to keep her awake and happy for 3 hours after that, and put her down for a nap at 2:45.  She slept until 4!  Yay!  I'll take any progress I can get!  I really hope I can help Breanna become a good sleeper and napper, but I'm trying to keep it all in perspective.  This morning my mom told me that I used to just lay down on the floor by my toys when I decided I was ready for a nap, and look how great I turned out!
If you have any tips or advice on how to help encourage good sleep habits let me know!  I would love to hear anything you've got!
Say a prayer for our family of 3!