Midnight Calisthenics...

Maya has officially mastered Part I of a two part trick. She can stand up in her crib, but she cannot get back down. Tonight she woke up around 3:00am to be changed and fed. At 3:25am, I kissed her goodnight (again), laid her down in her crib, and headed back to bed. I hadn't quite reached her doorway when I heard her crib rail shake. What the...? Maya was using the rail as support as made her way into a standing position. OH NO. I decided right then and there that I would have to use a technique that I read about in the "Baby Whisperer". It's called "pick up/put down". It's used to console a crying baby. You pick them up, calm them down, and then put them back down in their crib as soon as they stop crying. You do this as many times as it takes until they understand that they are not going to be rocked, carried, etc... in order to fall asleep. I idea is that gradually it will take less attempts to correct the behavior until eventually you won't have to intervene at all. Clearly I wouldn't be using the "pick up" part of the method, but instead, as soon as she stood up, I would sit her down, then lay her down and say, "time for sleeping", and repeat these steps until she stopped getting up. For those of you who know Maya, you are realizing that I was setting myself up for one fierce battle of wills. I thought to myself, "I'm bigger than her, and I will not give up. She'll wear out before me...". Quite the battle cry, huh? Give me a break, people, it was 3:25 in the middle of the night!!

And so it began... stand up, sit down, lay down, "time for sleeping". Roll over, crawl to rail, stand up, sit down, lay down, "time for sleeping". Roll over, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. It was 3:52am when Maya FINALLY conceded. I WON!! I DID IT!! I OUTLASTED THE ENERGIZER BUNNY! It was nothing short of a miracle! I had picked my battle, and I was victorious. It felt good... actually by that time, I didn't really feel anything but exhaustion setting in. I slowly made my way back to bed. I laid there for probably 10 minutes, just waiting for the sound of a shaking crib rail. Nothing. She was finally asleep! I let out a sigh of relief, rolled over, and fell asleep... for another 3 hours.

For those of you who are curious just how many times I laid Maya down... I figured that I must have laid her down approximately 3 times per minute (which I seriously think is an underestimation...), we played this game for 27 minutes, so I laid her down a minimum of 81 times (but I would guess that over 100 would be more accurate... she's a fast climber!).