Okay it happened TWO nights in a row Arielle slept like a champ! I dream fed her (and it miraculously worked!) at about 10 and then she slept till about 1:45 when I fed her again...then the next time I fed her was 6:30!! Then after that she slept to 8:30...craziness! I honestly don't know what to do with myself I feel like I've had so much sleep...eventually I'd like the 1:45 feed to go away but I'm not complaining...TWO 4hr+ blocks is frankly a huge blessing so I'm gonna enjoy that while it lasts.

I'll admit I'm a little fearful about how she'll react to her 2 month shots and really hope that doesn't fubar too much with her hopefully new sleep schedule. But it can't be helped so I shall just pray that the last few days of her actually catching up on sleep will help. That picture right there is one of her many naps...she is actually swaddled, something I thought she didn't like but it turns out that was not the case.

Two nights ago I was literally at my wits end...I had no idea why I couldn't get my baby to sleep and she was crying so much due to being so over tired that it was wearing on Jonathan and I like crazy. Then I remembered a DVD that Krista had given me that I stupidly hadn't watched yet...well I decided that before I put Arielle to bed I was watching it. It's called 'The Happiest Baby on the Block' by Dr. Harvey Karp...there is a book as well that I might be willing to get although I think the DVD was quite informative and dang if it didn't work like a charm!

I didn't realize that Arielle felt so much better when I swaddled her...it turns out I wasn't swaddling her tight enough so her arms could still get out and then she'd freak herself out when her arms would flail around without her control...hence the not sleeping, she'd always wake herself up. The last two nights I've put her to bed tightly swaddled, or wearing the 'Swaddle Me' that Krista had got her. When her arms were kept tightly at her side she slept for a four hour stint without waking up until she was hungry. Heck she even had GAS and I came into the room thinking she'd wake up...all I did was put her soother in her mouth and she farted like a pro without opening her eyes.

I feel like I've finally got my baby back...I'm hoping this will be an ongoing thing...I'm aware that there will be bad nights but man if I can get a couple of these kind of nights in during the week I'll feel way better equipped to deal with the bad nights. The five 'S's that Dr. Karp talks about work like a charm...his reasoning behind why they work is his own and frankly I don't care what it is...lol It works! Ironically one of the S's is shushing...something I HATE when people do it to me...but it is turning into a Godsend when it comes to calming Arielle. Now when she cries it hardly lasts a few minutes before I can calm her with swaddling, side/stomach, shushing, swinging and sucking...sometimes using all five sometimes just a couple.

I'm done promoting things now...since Arielle has put herself to sleep in her chair (I'm trying not to pass out from the shock of this) I'm going to try and do some dishes. :)