One check or two?

OK, so Rob and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on Saturday night by getting a babysitter so that we could go to the temple and then go to a nice restaurant afterward. It was awesome! Our anniversary is actually today, but Saturday worked best for going out. After we finished our dinner at Tucanos, my favorite place for meat, the waitress asked if we would like seperate checks. I looked at her and said, "well, two checks would be kind of awkward since we're here celebrating our wedding anniversary." Things that make you go hmmm.

We've been having a hard time with getting Maggie to sleep through the night lately. I know that she's getting a molar and a canine right now, so she's probably uncomfortable and cranky. But none of her other teeth affected her like this. We never really sleep trained her because she would just sleep, wake up to eat, and then go right back to sleep. And since she doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night anymore she has been sleeping "through the night" by medical standards, but still waking up at 5 or 6 am. Then, last week, she started this thing where we'd put her down and she'd wake up 45 minutes later. We'd rock her back to sleep and then the process would start all over again. After a really hard night, Rob and I decided that it was time to let her cry it out. We'd tried a few times before but it always resulted in projectile vomit, and to be honest, I'd rather go in and get her and rock her than clean up barf. I hate barf.

We put her in the crib and resolved not to open the door until 6 the next morning. And then the hysterical crying turned into projectile vomiting. And then dead silence. I knew that something was wrong, so we went in and sure enough, she was gagging on her barf and couldn't breathe. We stayed up with her all night because after the hysterics, she wouldn't settle down for anything. We decided to try it again the second night and after giving her a bottle, she fell asleep and I put her in her crib. I was planning on putting her in the crib after the bottle, asleep or not. But she fell asleep. She woke up about 45 minutes later, but we just let her cry. She did that several times through the night, but we never went in there and she'd always fall asleep on her own. Each night, it has gotten better.

I'm learning to recognize when she's crying out of protest or whether she is crying because she really needs something. I did go get her on Saturday night because it was a different cry. She had a major poopie and also was so hungry that she drank an entire bottle. But then she went back to bed. Right now, she has a runny nose, so she woke up again on Sunday night with the "I need help" cry. I'm pretty sure it's a teething runny nose because she seems fine otherwise. Except that she wasn't very interested in eating yesterday. She has done that every time she's gotten a new tooth, so that's par for the course.

We're going to get through this one way or the other. One thing I have also learned is that sleep training a child "by the book" isn't always the best way. I have really sought the help of Heavenly Father through this whole experience, and through the Spirit, I've had thoughts come into my head like "maybe if we do this, or "try this" it will work. And it has been working. It's just not going to work in 24 hours like I would hope for. She's growing up and changing, so as a parents, Robert and I need to be flexible and changeable to find the best solutions for her.

I feel a little bad that the first child is the "practice child." The next time we have a baby we'll know to get him or her sleep trained pronto. I have always just enjoyed rocking and holding my little girl so much that I haven't wanted to give it up. And now it's biting me in the rear. Oh well.

I have crafted a blog post with pictures of Maggie from the last 11 months, but I'm not sure how to post a bajillion pictures without the formatting getting all crazy. Does anyone know how to add multiple photos at once? We're talking like 30 or so.