sleeping experiment night 1: a success.

since ellie stopped nursing herself to sleep (at about 3 months), she has been falling asleep in her swing. she falls asleep there, and then, once she's good and crashed, we move her to her bed where she sleeps all night.

this has been a fine plan except that her head is now near hitting the metal bar that actually swings the thing. and, even turned all the way up with full battery strength, well, let's just say the swing doesn't swing quite as enthusiastically as it used to. i can almost her it groaning under at-least-25-pound body.

i knew the day would come when there would be no way she could fit in that swing. we haven't been able to try this experiment until last night because we've been at david and delana's so late every night. (they have cable.) she falls asleep in the swing there, and we bring her home, put her in her bed at midnight or 1 a.m.

last night, i came right home from church at 9.

i decided i was going to put ellie directly into her bed, and that i would let her cry for 10 minutes before i made her a bottle.

i literally set the timer because, if you are parent, you know that a kid's crying for 1 minute often seems like 10. amid sobbing, we enter a time warp.

she cried for 9 minutes.

score!

but after about 4 or 5 more, she started again. so i made her a bottle. it was 8 ounces (she usually only drinks that much once in the morning), and she destroyed it. she really was hungry.

after her bottle, she fussed a little, but way less enthusiastically than she had in the first 9 minutes. she was laying down in her crib wimpering instead of standing at the end of it yelling.

i walked in quietly, took her completely drained bottle and gave her the paci.

not another peep until 9:35 this morning.

now i just have to figure out what to do about nap time.

yes, she takes naps in her swing too....