Since Sunday, April 12th, (the past 12 glorious days!) Evra has finally been sleeping through the entire night, making Mike and I finally feel like new people again! We knew that Evra could sleep through the night, since she has done it a few times in the past, but she hadn't previously been consistent. So we decided to make the long nights of sleep more consistent. It hasn't been easy. The first night entailed listening to Evra scream for two full hours from 11:40pm to 1:40am. It was horrible and I'm pretty sure my blood pressure went through the roof. I even went in to work the next morning and had to have one of my work colleagues (a fellow pediatrician and new mom) reassure me that, no, I was not "breaking Evra's spirit." Of course, I knew this, because she woke up the following morning with a huge smile on her face and was very happy to see me and Mike; it was obvious that she was not traumatized and did not remember the night before (unlike Mike and I, who will probably remember this night for a long time to come...)!
However, it's really heart-wrenching listening to her cry her little heart out in the middle of the night. The following nights seemed very easy, as Evra would wake a couple of times in the middle of the night, but has only cried out for more than a minute or so once during the past (nearly) two weeks (and she eventually put herself back to sleep after about 10-15 minutes). Evra has taken to sleeping with her Lovie, which helps her put herself to sleep at night and also calm herself in the middle of the night. Her favorite way to sleep is to have the Lovie covering her face. At first this made us very nervous. We would go in to her room and remove it from her face, only to find that it had been replaced within the next 5-10 minutes. So we have given in to her strange habit. But it seems to be working for everyone, so I can't complain!
Below are some funny pictures of Evra sleeping at night, as seen from her video monitor...
And this is what she looks like in the morning, when still sleeping...
So thank goodness for an adorable daughter who sleeps through the night! I will be knocking on a lot of wood after writing this blog, so hopefully nothing changes!
Evra at nap time. Such a sweet sleeping angel!
