Sleep

I would classify Ingrid as a good sleeper. Even a great sleeper. Especially when I know the sleep situations many have had or are still having (sorry Heathy...) She's not one of those "marathon" sleepers though. I know of some babies who sleep 12 or more hours straight! Ing can go 10 at the most, which is great I think. She might wake up once in the night, one or two nights out of the week. Not too bad. Around 4 months old, we started getting into a really good sleep routine. Before then Ingrid had often fallen asleep nursing, with me holding her, or rocking and then I would put her in her crib. I think it was around 4.5 months when we started laying her in her crib awake, with music. We would wait until she was sleepy, around 8 o'clock and lay her down. Most of the time we would have to go in and pat her and tell her we loved her and so on. Soon we only had to go in once. After about 3 weeks of this routine, I could lay her down and she would be asleep in less than 5 minutes. It was a dream. (I admit, at first I was super sad I wasn't rocking her anymore. I might have even cried...But I soon realized, that laying her down meant she got to sleep so much quicker, which was better for her and me). But this all changed Friday night. I layed Ingrid down and turned on her music, told her I loved her, turned out the light and left the room. When I turned the monitor on, I could hear her rustling around. This is nothing out of the ordinary, because she moves around her whole crib when she sleeps. She covers every inch. But then the rustling turned into grunting. The grunting got louder and louder. So I turned on the hall light, and peeked in to see this:

Yes, I had my camera in my pocket from earlier picture taking, so I snapped a photo or two...
I was so surprised to see Ingrid standing there staring at me. I knew she could pull herself up and stand in her crib, but she had only done that during the day, wide awake. This was "night-night". Sleepy time. And she was in her sleep sack. I definitely didn't think she could maneuver around and stand up in that big thing. But I was wrong. And she thought it was hilarious. She started clapping and laughing as soon as she saw me. I layed her back down in the crib and told her it was night-night and to close her eyes. She quickly flipped to her belly and stood back up. I was afraid to leave her in there to keep standing up because the mattress was so high. (I had Derek lower it as soon as he got home from CHRISTeens). I ended up rocking Ingrid to sleep Friday and Saturday night so I wouldn't have to worry about her toppling out of the crib! Every night since, I have tried laying her down (like our old routine) and she's stood up within a minute laughing and clapping. She gets so wound up looking around her room and trying to walk along the crib rail. (I decided to give up the sleep sack. I don't want her falling and knocking her brains out because she's in that thing). I've resorted to rocking her to sleep each night before putting her in bed. I've actually liked rocking her and cuddling with her, but I can't help but feel like this is a step backward. The main goal is for kids to be able to go to sleep on their own isn't it? I guess she would get tired of standing there eventually. But I'm not so sure! She thinks it's pretty fun.
And I just realized that this is one of those "wordy" posts that I always gripe at Heather about. Ooops.