Sleeping Update

So they say that having a baby is hard. I think the hardest thing for me has been when it is 3 a.m. and I am just so exhausted. I am just crawling into bed and Naomi starts crying again. That is the worst.
So my endevour to get her to sleep the night is making some progress I think. We have made a few small changes and though we are not there yet, I feel like we are headed in the right direction.

We moved her bedtime routine to in the nursery instead of in the kitchen, and we increased the snuggle and baby massage time. We have been using Johnson's lavender lotion and baby soap for her bath since she was born so I am not sure if that helps or not, but I like smell and it helps me relax so if anything, that is good and hopefully that would help Naomi relax too.

Something else I am working on is that I don't bounce her/rock her anymore. I used to bounce on my yoga ball to get her to go to sleep everytime, so we are working on stopping that so that she will get used to putting herself to sleep. The hard part about this is the transition from holding and bouncing her to just having her in her crib. So I started not bouncing and just holding. I added rubbing her back as a way to sooth her. (Thanks Mom) Then I transitioned to having her lay in her crib with my arm under her and still rubbing her back. (this part hurts me a lot because my knees start to lock up and the bar from the crib is cutting into my stomach, so it doesn't last any longer then it has to.) Next I am going to not pick her up at all. We'll see how it goes.
Hopefully this will help her so when she wakes up in the middle of the night she won't need me to help her go back to sleep.

Another part of all this is that she has such a sensitive stomach. I can't eat broccoli, tomatoes, or even dill pickles without her having a hard time sleeping. So needless to say, my diet has been lacking the last 7 months. That will be another benefit of weaning her in a few months.