12 Minute Miracle

What??? If I knew it could work that fast, I would've tried a looong time ago.

*rewind*

At yesterday's well baby check-up, Taryn weighed in at 15 lbs, 14 ozs and 25.5 inches long. Damn girl! The thing that trips me out on this one though, is she's still in the low-normal range for weight, but feels like a beast to me*.

And good news. My baby has boobies! The Doc said he had noticed the lump under her left nipple in her previous appointment (just completely failed to tell me...thanks) and that it's probably just developing breast tissue. Of course I left with the same warnings, if it starts getting red, she starts running a fever, or it seems like it hurts her, bring her back in. But yay! Maybe she won't be cursed by my own fate in the bust department: start developing late (12 years old), stop developing early (12.5 years old). Tee-hee-hee.

So Dr. M also suggested we try letting Taryn cry it out after I was telling him how she still wants to nurse 2 or 3 times a night, and that we're (I'm) spending copious amounts of time trying to settle her back down at night when she's waking up. He walked me through the "humane" way of doing it, checking in and settling her down after 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, etc. I started tearing up in the office just hearing him talk about it, but he promised me that by this age (and after watching us interact for 30 minutes) that she's very secure in our relationship and she won't hate me for it, that she'll be an even happier baby when she learns to fall asleep herself and sleep for longer than an hour or two, and also that it won't take more than 3-5 days if we're (I'm) consistent in our (my) approach. Meaning don't feel bad and comfort her when you're not supposed to, or you'll have to start all over. He did warn me though that she could cry up to two hours the first night, and maybe I should buy some ear plugs or rent a movie to distract us (me).

So I talked to P, and we decided to start today on it, since she had gotten shots and all, and I wanted to be available to comfort her. But after getting up roughly 10 times last night, I was too exhausted to keep it up. So at 4:19am, she started cryign again, and I started counting.

At 4:24am, I went into her room, flipped her onto her stomach, popped her binkie in, told her I loved her and goodnight.

At 4:31am, the crying stopped.

At 4:51am, I realized she really was asleep.

She hadn't had Tylenol since about 10:00pm.

She hadn't eaten since around 1:30am.

And she slept until 9:30am. Without waking up. Even when P left for work.

And, her binkie wasn't even in her mouth.

Now, I can admit when I'm wrong, and hotdamn, I was wrong about Ferber. (Mr. Ferber, my apologies) I am shocked shitless she slept for that long without a peep. And even more shocked, I got a couple hours straight of sleep too!

Though there is one drawback.

I ususlly don't wake up when P leaves for work. I think I've been too exhausted to even hear his alarm when he gets up, but this morning I heard it loud a clear. I even got up to pump since my left breast was chock-full of milk (I pumped 5 ozs on that side) then I went back to sleep.

Ahhhhh, sweet sleep.

So I tried again for her nap this morning. She cried for a minute, maybe less, then passed out.

There is a bounce in my step right now, a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, and I'm hyped up on caffeine ready to bake like nobody's business.

Life is gooooooood.

* Right about here is when she stopped crying today. Like, a minute, maybe? WOW.