Crib notes

A miracle happened today at the Libutti house.
For two years now, I have held Jenna every afternoon at naptime while she sleeps for several hours. At first, it was kind of relaxing- holding a sleeping baby is one of my absolute favorite things- and I caught up on the news, reading, sleep, etc. I enjoyed watching "Mission Organization" on HGTV and the Baby Stories on TLC. For the last few weeks, however, I have felt my mind slowly turning to absolute mush. I have seen EVERY episode of the shows on the 2:00pm hour and was not interested anymore in tv. I have weaned Jenna down to nursing only three times a day (morning, nap and before bed) and am becoming unaccustomed to her hanging on me anymore. So today I made the big move... putting her in her crib for her nap.
(I am quite embarrassed to admit I've held her sleeping for so long... even my most soft-hearted and sucker mom friends look at me like I'm nuts - with their eyebrows up at about their hairline- when I tell them how Jenna naps.)
(Let me also interject here that I have tried this before, when she was an infant somewhere between 6-12 months old and she cried for FOUR HOURS. I was a mess, she was a mess, and Michaela was sick of hearing the crying. If listening to her cry for four hours isn't a deterrent to try it again, I don't know what is.)
(Let me further add that I think the Department of Defense has underestimated the sound of a crying baby as a torture device for captured terrorists. They could record a crying baby and just play it over and over and wait for the men to break apart. It is such an annoying, anxiety-producing sound... we are hard-wired to want it to stop. When Jenna was an infant and cried frequently I know I was willing to tell anyone anything in order for the crying to stop.)
Anyway, back to today. I nursed her sleep at about 3pm and put her in her crib at about 3:00pm. She immediately woke up, as she always does when she is put down while sleeping, and started crying. And screaming. And standing up, shaking the side of the crib. And shrieking.
Jenna had some fantastic coping techniques to being put in the crib. She used these at night as well when we started putting her in her crib at bedtime. She progresses from yelling "momma... momma" to "Mommy!" The she tries "Dadda... Daddy!!" Then she yells for Michaela, who she nicknamed MeeMee. When she gets more mad, she demands to be rescued: "Momma... me out!! Me out!!" When she's given up almost all hope, she pulls out her trump card: claiming that she pooped and needs to be changed. "Momma... me poo... me poo... me out!!!" At one point, Dan and I were giggling listening to her because she is so persistent and creative.
So speaking of persistence, she screamed and cried and carried on for two hours this afternoon (only half as long as the first time!!) but then fall asleep at about 5:20pm in her crib. I let her sleep for about an hour, all the while praying that she was actually asleep and not dead in the crib, and then woke her up so that she'll go to bed at a decent hour tonight. Of course I kissed and hugged her and told her what a big girl she was for sleeping in the crib. She was not happy with me but then seemed to loosen up and eventually forgive me for putting her in that torture chamber. (One of my mom's favorite stories about my craziness while taking care of Jenna as an infant is this one: the first time of many that we tried to get her to sleep in her crib, Jenna was about six months old and freely expressed her displeasure to me about being separated from me at night. The next morning, my mom asked me how the night went and I told her it was okay but that Jenna seemed standoff-ish towards me that morning. My mom assured me that Jenna barely knows she's alive, let alone could be sophisticated enough to withhold love from me on purpose. I stick by my original story... she was clearly giving me the cold shoulder.)
Think of me tomorrow at about one o'clock... we'll see how day two goes in the crib adventures.