window of wakefulness

so i'm trying very hard to help ella have a schedule that lets her get the maximum amount of sleep and also the maximum value from her alert time. last night she went to bed really well, with only ten minutes of crying, and she slept for four hours before waking for her first feeding. she then only woke up once during the night for another feeding, and she was so pleasant and calm during that night waking. sometimes she wakes up seeming very agitated during the night. i think that has to do with her being overtired.

she woke for the day at 8:40. i had good intentions of getting her back in her crib for a nap by 10:30, but at 9:50 i realized that it was going to rain later in the day, so if we wanted to get some fresh air we needed to go then. by the time elenora and i got back from our short walk and i changed her diaper and nursed and rocked and sang to her, it was already 11:03. shoot.

"healthy sleep habits" says a baby shouldn't be awake for more than two hours. if she's awake for more than two hours she's automatically overtired.

i put her into her crib asleep, though, so i thought maybe it was alright.

she woke up ten minutes later crying very hard. after ten minutes of crying i sensed something was up and i picked ella up to find that she'd had a huge pooping. so i changed and cleaned her and then rocked and sang to her and put her back in her crib.

this time she did not fall asleep. she cried. hard. and kept crying. i went in every ten minutes to hold her hands and to tell her i love her, but she didn't calm down. she screamed so pathetically that by 12:15 i gave in and picked her up.

she was so upset that she threw up on my shoulder and her hands and just wailed. i felt so awful that i'd let her get that upset. i held her in my arms and she fell asleep rather quickly on my chest.



but all the time i was holding my sleeping elenora to my chest i was thinking "did i just teach her that the next time i put her in her crib she just has to cry for an hour really hard and i'll pick her up?" i want to help her get to sleep. that's my goal. but what do you do when your daughter is so upset that she's throwing up? do you stick to your guns and wait for her to "cry it out"? or do you eventually do as i did and pick her up and console her? what will this mean for the next time?

she and i slept until 3:04 in my bed, when i slipped out. she's still sleeping there so sweetly.

tonight when she wakes up i'm going to be sure to get her back into her crib before her window of wakefulness is up. maybe if she's not overtired she won't fight off the sleep.