Things are lookin' up

Still no pictures yet, but at least I have good news.

Boba is getting better.

But that's just the half of it. You see, colds do get better (provided they don't catch a secondary infection or another virus along the way), and symptoms do ease up with time. What tends to happen, however, is that while you, as the parent, comfort your child in her time of illness, the child learns something very interesting: that if she shows you enough distress, you will do anything to help her. And that includes staying up all night with her sleeping in your arms. Meanwhile, your arms ache with muscle fatigue, your ears ring with the rattle of her snot-ridden breathing, and you are barely conscious due to relentless exhaustion and stress. But that doesn't matter because she knows you are right there and that you will not let go of her lest you tolerate another hysterical screaming fit, much like the ones you've heard all night.

They can be very clever, these little ones. Because they know that they can continue doing this, even though they are feeling better.

Boba showed remarkable improvement by Saturday, having slept through the night (albeit in her car seat) on Friday. But come Saturday night, she refused to go to sleep alone. Well, I was tired and fed-up at this point, knowing full well that her health was such that she was not only capable of sleeping well; she certainly could do it without me. But I was no longer a fan of swinging her in her car seat since she is almost 20 lbs. and it takes at least 10 minutes of swinging to get her to sleep. So...

...I FERBERIZED her.

This is essentially the "crying-it-out" method, which seems harsh to some, but is now considered total brilliance by me. Yes, the first night was really tough, as the book (pictured right) said it would be, but last night she slept through the night...sans swaddle, sans pacifier, sans bottle...in her crib, alone. For almost 11 hours.

AMAZING.

The method can take up to 2 weeks, it says in the book, but generally for infants you can see marked improvement in 4 days. Well, Boba got it down in 2 nights. So either she's a quick study or I was just lucky last night and had a really sleepy baby. Regardless, I think this book is great, and for most babies I think you only really need to read the first three chapters or so. I avoided this book like the plague for months because the idea of hearing Boba cry for more than 5 minutes was too unbearable to even consider. But in retrospect, it really wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. Actually, I think she probably learned so quickly because she was already capable of sleeping through the night, but I wanted her to do it without all those sleep aids that I usually provide (swaddle, etc.).

Anyway, too late to make this long story short, but I am a much happier Mommy this week. And I promise to post photos soon! Thanks to everyone who has sent their love and sympathy to me these last few days!