Wonder Weeks

Sleep around here has been few and far between lately.  We have been working on transitioning Annelise to her crib.  And y'all, I think that it's going to be the death of me!

Ever since we brought her home, she has slept at night in the Rock N Play in our bedroom.  Naps were taken in her swing in the living room, with the occasional nap in the RNP.  We started off the transition by first moving her RNP to her bedroom.  That went pretty well, with no major problems.

Then, I decided that I would work on getting her to nap well in her crib.  That had its rough spots, but for the most part, went decently well.  We have developed a routine of swaddling her, turning ocean on her sound machine, and nursing and rocking her to sleep.  Once she is asleep, I lay her in her crib, and she'll nap anywhere from an hour to three.  Not too shabby!

Last week, I decided that it was time to take the leap to putting her in her crib overnight.  Oh. Em. Gee!  Frustration does not even begin to describe what goes on in this house every night.  I managed to get one good night of a six and a half hour stretch.  Usually, we follow the same routine as nap time and I can get her down ok.  However, Annelise will wake up shortly after and start screaming.  I refuse to Cry It Out (CIO), so I usually go in to get her and try to do the routine all over again.  Everything goes fine and dandy until I try to lay her in her crib.  That's when all hell breaks loose.  As soon as I begin the descent into her crib, her little eyes fly open and she starts fussing and trying to sit up.  The other night, I tried putting her into her crib six times before I gave up and made Drew take over.  SIX TIMES!!!  Each time she is sound asleep in my arms.  Naps over the weekend were just as rough.  We eventually gave up with the crib and put her back in her RNP.

I have been wracking my brain to figure out what the heck the problem could be.  Then, all of a sudden, I had an epiphany.  She is going through a Wonder Week.  A wonder week is a leap in mental development.  This, of course, is affecting her mood and sleeping.  Annelise must be in Wonder Week 26, which begins around 23 weeks, peaks at 26 weeks, and lasts for one to five weeks.  Usually new skills can also appear.  In her case, she has been working on mastering sitting.  Annelise just so happened to hit 25 weeks today.

Let's just all pray that this passes quickly.  Mama needs her sleep, and honestly, so does baby!