Some Things Are Worth Settling For

Long time no post. A lot has happened since the last post, including Christmas Eve and Christmas itself, among other things. Christmas Eve I finished sewing the girls dresses for Children’s Mass at 6 that night. They looked very pretty in their gold and black; even Baby B was decked out to match her big sisters. Margaret and Patricia did the readings and responses. I was so proud of them. We went to Grandma and Granddad Downs’ house after as is tradition and visited with family. Tracey had her baby there. Molly was born about two and a half months after Brigid and is wearing an 18-month size. She’s barely crawling and looks like she should be running around the house. Meanwhile, Brigid is a peanut.

Christmas morning was wonderful. Very relaxed and warm. We got up not too too early. The girls are great about staying upstairs until a reasonable hour. They came down about 8:30 or so and we opened stockings. Brigid was interested but not too involved. She watched the goings on. We had breakfast then came back out to start on the presents under the tree. Santa brought Brigid a shape sorter and a few other stacking toys. But as expected, she would have been happy with a bunch of paper and boxes. Jack gave me a digital camera, so I expect to be able to post photos with the blog more often. We hung around the house until going back to Grandma and Granddad’s for dinner and more presents.

The days following have been spent enjoying the gifts given and received. But the biggest gift this season is that Brigid has finally made the switch to her own room and the crib. Last night was the first night of her Ferberization and it went better than I could have ever imagined. She went to sleep originally in my arms (I know, not the way Ferber recommends) and I put her down in the crib. She woke about 45 minutes later and I went in after five minutes of her crying; I soothed her for a few minutes but I didn’t pick her up. I left her awake in the crib. She cried for a while, and I went back in after 10 minutes. I didn’t have to go back in after that. She cried a little here and there, but no great screaming. She was asleep. In her own bed. On her own. It worked. But then I went in to check on her before going to bed myself. I couldn’t find her in the crib. I looked where she should have been lying and she wasn’t there. A momentary panic gripped me, and then I saw her: she was asleep, sitting, with her head slouched on her shoulder, in the corner of the crib. It made me laugh and broke my heart at the same time. I got Jack to come in and see for himself. I successfully moved her to a reclining position and covered her up. She slept on her own for the rest of the night. There was nary a peep out of her. She got up at 9 a.m. and came in for a snuggle and a little boob time with me. I worried that it was a fluke, that we were being too optimistic, but she sleeps now as I type this entry. She went down tonight awake but crying. I checked on her once, soothing her but not picking her up. She cried a little but not a lot. I just checked in on her and she’s on her tummy, her little bottom up I the air. She’s clutching her stuffed animals and sleeping. We’re optimistic and hopeful. But to tell you the truth, I missed not having that little lump of love next to me last night where I could lean over any time and kiss that downy head. I’ll have to settle for the boob time tomorrow morning.