Try, Try, Try Again

I have been trying to do a bedtime routine with Libby Anne for the past couple weeks. Sometimes it helps, most of the time it doesn't. But I keep trying hoping that maybe one of these days it will "click" for her and she will have a great nights sleep.

Our routine goes like this:
- Bath time! Libby Anne LOVES her bath
- Pajamas
- Nurse
- Story time- Libby Anne and I both like when Rick reads us stories for our story time
- Swaddle- I have been experimenting with this to see if she prefers to be swaddled or not swaddled. I think she prefers to not be swaddled, but she still startles and wakes herself up with her arms and hands.
- Prayers
- Mommy sings songs
- Lay down in the co-sleeper

For some reason, I usually can get her to sleep in her co-sleeper but she wakes up about 45 minutes later. I try to let her stay in the crib for a few minutes until she starts crying... then I pick her up and comfort her (there is no "crying it out" in this household!). She generally falls asleep within a minute of me holding her. She still really craves being cuddled and being close to us.

Overall, Libby Anne is doing pretty well with her sleep. We usually get a 6 hour stretch and then a 4 hour stretch between feedings. Technically 6 hours of sleep is considered sleeping through the night. We are at around 5 to 5.5 hours of sleep (eating and getting to sleep generally takes anywhere between 20-60 mins).

So I will continue to stick with it. Hopefully Libby Anne will start to recognize the routine as bedtime and it will result in a better night sleep for all of us.