New beginnings?

After another night of waking every two hours, I declared yesterday that I would be turning the baby monitor off that night. Enough was enough. 7 months is long enough to be sleeping through.

Of course, I wasn't sure if I could actually do it. When it's the middle of the night and the baby is crying actual tears, when she is distraught and you just want to get back to sleep, when you know your husband can probably hear her and he has to get up in a few hours to get ready for a long day at work - feeding is an easy solution.

But, I had to remember just how crappy I've been feeling. I'm slooooooow to start the day, so I bring the baby in to bed and we just lay about - that's not benefiting her in any way. If I'm tired, I'm less likely to get out and do something constructive - like go to mothers group, or walk the dogs, or get brush my teeth of my hair. I spend the day in a bit of a haze and I feel like crap and I eat like crap - I'm still below pre-baby weight but I've put on 3.5kg that I lost late last year.

After a giant dinner (a big jar of baby food, a piece of toast, a tub of broccoli, a stick of cheese and two rice cracker mum-mums) and a giant feed, baby went to bed at around 7.30. The husband was tiiiiiiired, so he went to be at 9.30, and I was in bed by 10.30.

At 12.30, baby woke up to the point where I could hear her without the monitor.

She's pretty cluey - the crying slowed a bit when I went in the room, and stopped once I picked her up. She settled in to my hug and butt pats, but kicked it back up again when I tried to put her down after a minute. I picked her up again and sat down with her in the rocker, where she tried a few times to suck at my collar bone - that was the hard part (I'm pretty sure that's universal baby language for 'feed me').

We hugged and she got her butt patted and I sang to her a bit and after 15 minutes, she was calmer.

Until I put her down again.

But then I found the dummy and all was right in the world.

She woke up around 3am I think - I could hear her, but it wasn't anything much.
I woke up around 4am - I think this was because I've grown accustomed to frequent wakeups.
She woke up at 5.15, crying, and I figured it was fine to feed her then (10 hour gap! Yahoo!).

After finally getting back to sleep at 6 (she had a big feed and I was wired with excitement that we'd gone so long between feeds), I woke up at 830, to her chatter (and pooping noises) through the monitor - the husband must have flicked it on before he left for work.

I am hoping this is the beginning of sleeping through.

I am hoping these are not famous last words.