6 months old and sleeping like a baby

I wasn't going to do sleep training with Molly. She has always been a pretty good sleeper, and I thought it was fine just letting her fall asleep whenever she was ready. We'd keep her out with us in the living room most nights until she passed out, somewhere around 8:30 or 9:00. Over Christmas, her "bedtime" was more like 9:30 or 10:00, which makes sense with the time change and all of the excitement. But after our trip to Virginia, I started to realize that my baby was the poster child for "overtired" and I wasn't doing her any favors by being a laid back mom and just letting sleep happen.

So I dug around my email and found an article that my friend Julie sent me in my early days of parenting (thanks Julie!) that offered a few alternatives to crying it out. And wouldn't you know it? One night of sleep training, and Molly has been sleeping 7:30 to 7:30 ever since. It's like she was dying for me to put her on a schedule! She cried for a gut-wrenching 5 minutes, until Jason went in her room and gave her a pacifier and a pat on the forehead. And then she cried again (hard) for about 10 minutes until I went in. She was so exhausted at that point that all I had to do was put a hand on her little chest and she completely gave up the ghost. Poor kid. But she's been a different baby ever since. She's happier during the days and even has a more consistent nap schedule. All the articles said that this would happen, that sleep begets sleep, but I guess I had to see it to believe it!

This sucks for Jason and I a little bit, because we have less time with Molly in the evenings, and what time we do have is less fun. Before, we would just play play play from about 6pm until Molly fell asleep for the night. There would be some eating in there, and sometimes a short little catnap, but most of the time was spent bouncing and singing. Now, I get Molly home around 6pm, we play for about half an hour, and then we start the business of going to bed.

She gets a taste of solid food around 6:30:

Molly's teachers tell me she's a "neat" little eater. Huh? Not at my house! Also, check out the static electricity working on that mullet :)

If we have time and I'm feeling up to it, Molly gets a bath around 6:45 or 7:00. Bath time is actually one of the highlights of the night now that Molly has learned how much fun it is to kick water around in the tub. After that, I take Molly into her room, turn down the lights, and read her a few stories. Sometimes she's so ready for bed, we skip the stories and go straight to eating. Then, I put her in her crib, walk away, and she falls asleep. Who knew? Besides the experts I mean :)

Totally zonked out. Not even a laughing mother with a flashing camera could wake this kid!

I think she looks like ME in this picture

I realize that I'm pretty lucky with Molly and that sleep training does not always go down so easy. Moms with bad sleepers...do not be mad at me! Especially since I'm still waking up here and there throughout the night when Molly cries in her sleep :( So sad! I think she's getting in a few more teeth because a pacifier always seems to do the trick. We'll see.

Anyway, Molly is officially 6 months old now. We're going in for her check up on Saturday, so stay tuned for her stats!