As a baby shower gift, I received one of those calendars for the first year of life where you put stickers on the dates when your baby reaches certain milestones, and I noticed that it had 3 stickers for "sleeping through the night". At the time I thought, "hmmm...that's weird," I think because I imagined that all the sudden one morning, around 2 or 3 months of age, you would wake up and say, "wow, she never woke up last night!" and that would be the end of it: sleeping through the night from then on. WRONG: little did I know that here we are at 10 months of age, I have already used all 3 of my "sleeping through the night" stickers in a wishful thinking manner, and as of last week, we were STILL getting up a couple times each night to feed. At 10 months old, this seemed a little ridiculous, as well as a little exhausting. So finally, after months of debating, we decided to cut the night feeding and let her fuss. We went to bed with a very detailed plan of "if this, then this...if that, then that". The first two times she woke up that night were a piece of cake - she went right back to sleep when I went in and reassured her. But the third time, she wouldn't give up - for an HOUR. A very long hour. We were really close to giving in, but we didn't. And guess what? She has slept through the night (12 hours straight) for the past 5 nights - not a PEEP. It took one hour - it was so easy, in fact, that I find myself wishing I had done it months ago. But in reality, I really feel that the timing was just right. I just felt within the last month that the feeding was more about comfort than hunger. So now the whole family is sleeping better.
As for the scary milestone, that's a different story: so lately Katy's been really super clingy. I know before that I said this was no big deal, but it's becoming a bigger one. I know it's normal separation anxiety stuff, but it's really draining. Anyway, the other day she was actually playing on the floor with a toy, so I decided to run upstairs for 2 minutes and go to the bathroom. Well, she must've quickly realized I was gone and decided to come after me, because when I came out, guess where I found her?
Yeah, that's right, halfway up a flight of stairs!!! I have never seen her climb even a single step. I completely panicked, but of course tried to tiptoe down the stairs so I didn't startle her and make her fall backward. Oh my gosh, my heart is pounding just remembering that sight! Later, after calming down and after Brian got home, we decided to see the extent of this skill.
Next step: install a gate at the BOTTOM of the steps. Never would've thought of that one.
