A Battle of Wills

And I won.

But only because I can bounce longer than Aurora can scream. Bouncing takes way less energy than screaming. Too bad she doesn't know that...

Aurora used to be great at going to bed. She would get up in the middle of the night to eat sometimes, but she was really good about bed time and falling asleep right away. Starting around 10 weeks we could put her in her crib partly awake and she would go to sleep. But the last 2-3 weeks she has been fighting sleep. She will only go to sleep with her binky (which she never used to need) and then she would wake up and cry every time she dropped it. That meant that getting her to bed took about 2 hours. We kept having to run in there and give her the binky.

It was getting hard - I was sick of it. So last night we battled it out and oh my gosh it was AWFUL. She screamed for 40 minutes - I was holding her the whole time and trying to calm her down, but she wanted her binky. She was SO mad at me. She kept squirming and hitting me which might have been funny if I didn't feel so bad about it. I hate depriving her of what she wants, but I know it will be better for all of us in the long run... So finally she wore herself out. I was so ready to give in so many times, but I knew that it would all be a waste then.

And tonight - she went right to bed. I put her in her crib with no binky at 7:30 and not a sound since (yes- she's still breathing - I checked) but its 9:30. So I think maybe it was worth it... I'll have to remember this for the future...