Nighty-Night

Last night was night 4 of Esperanza learning how to soothe herself to sleep. If you read the post My Pulsatilla Baby several months back, you'll know we tried this before and it was a disaster for all of us. Esperanza is very strong willed and will fight going to sleep even when she has what she wants. She's never been a thumb sucker, or taken to a binky even after we tried numerous kinds hoping she would. She also hasn't become attached to any specific blanket, toy or doll that would provide her comfort and help calm her to sleep. She has always needed me to nurse her to sleep. I do love nursing her and will continue to for who knows how long, yet I know that I won't be nursing her forever and that she needs to figure out how to fall asleep on her own or else we're going to be in big trouble some day. Plus, I'd kinda like to free up my evenings and have the option for someone other than me to put her to bed at night.

So, I altered the method we used last time a smidgen and gave it a shot. So far it's gone a lot better. I haven't given up. It is still difficult for all of us though. The first night she was very vocal about being uncomfortable with the new routine. The second night was better. She got to a point on night 2 where she was 'talking' to herself for about 20 minutes and it sounded like she was actually having a pretty good time by herself before she finally fell asleep (as you can hear in the video below). The third night was questionable. She wouldn't fall asleep for the longest time! One of the times that I checked on her I noticed the room was stinky. She had decided to give me a poopy diaper (she NEVER poops at night). So that kind of altered the routine and probably confused her about what was going on, but eventually she fell asleep. Last night went pretty smooth and it took less time for her to fall asleep than all the other nights. Wish me luck for all our future nights!

Even though I got the crib all set up in her bedroom and ready for her to sleep in, I ended up putting her in a mini pack-n-play in our bedroom cause I figured the familiar surroundings of the room would make it easier on her since she's never slept in that other room...hey, this is hard on me too and I have to take baby steps. The real challenge is going to be getting her to stay asleep.

Below is a video I took on night 2 of her chatting away, in a repetative sort of way. There is nothing to see but you can hear her. It was so funny, I had to capture it somehow and I wasn't sure how to use just a voice recorder on my camera...so black screen it is.

While Esperanza soothed herself to sleep one of the nights, I took the free time to make more strawberry jam. I was always intimidated with the idea of canning that I never even attempted it until recently. It's so easy though! While I did use a water bath canner (well, last week it was just a stock pot), apparently you don't even need to do the boiling process with jam even though ALL the pectin recipes say you do. My mom (and a really old cook book I have) tell me that it isn't necessary. I'm a little OCD though and decided to do it, just in case. I'm also looking forward to canning a lot more things this year as the season continues and various fruits and veggies become available.