Saturday, May 9, 2009

My Kid ROCKS!!!!

I always thought when I became a mother, I would be one of those "over-the-top thinking my child could do no wrong overestimating their abilities they are the best kid in the world" kind of moms. Don't get me wrong, Kerrigan is completely PERFECT in my eyes. However, I have noticed that occasionally I underestimate how awesome she really is.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I needed to "wean" her from being swaddled. I did tons of research, asked everyone I knew for advice and decided I should do it gradually (i.e. keep one arm out of the swaddling for a couple of weeks, then both then the legs).

However at that time she was waking up anyways, and screaming until I brought her in bed with me, so I decided to go cold turkey with the swaddling while letting her cry it out (just going in to comfort her without picking her up every 15 minutes). I started on a Wednesday, thinking I was going to be up ALL night for at least a week, so I could break it up by letting Jared be on baby duty Friday and Saturday night.

The first night was awful!!! She screamed and screamed for 45 minutes. When I would go in to comfort her, the little stink would grab my hand and hold it to her face while crying pitifully. By the time Jared got home from a Young Men's activity, I was sitting at my desk sobbing for my poor baby. However, within 10 minutes of him getting home she fell asleep.

The next night, I had a pep talk with Jared. "Its going to be hard, " I said. "Its going to take all your mental strength not to pick her up, " I explained. "Your heart will break, but its for the best, "I added. He was fully prepared.

Bedtime came. I fed Kerrigan, rocked her for a few extra minutes so she KNEW I loved her, braced myself and laid her down in her crib. She smiled at me, lifted her legs and bum straight up in the air, rolled to one side and fell asleep before I even left the room.

I didn't know what to think, so I tiptoed out of the room, turned on the monitor and laid down in bed fully anticipating the scream I was sure was about to emerge....but it never did!!!! This is how we found her 9 hours later (and it has been like that every night since with the exception of the night when we had company over when I put her to bed)!!!!

Like I said, my kid ROCKS!!!!


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fully agree, your kid DOES rock. And I miss having her (and you too!!!) just two doors down...

The Bedke Fam said...

wow. she caught on fast. good job kerrigan...you saved mom's sanity :)

Suzanne said...

She is so precious!!!!! I love this picture and I am so glad that she is letting you getting some sleep! What a sweet girl!