The Swinger

Little Miss Fussy Pants loves her swing. She will not sleep anywhere else. We have the routine down to a science. I swaddle her in her 'miracle blanket', tell her I love her (but there's not a lot of time to chat due to the fact that she's usually screaming bloody murder), give her a kiss, put her in the swing, strap her in, turn the thing on full speed, dash to the CD player and turn on the white noise pretty loud (yes, I am afraid she'll go deaf but Craig assures me she'll be fine). It takes approximately 12 seconds for the CD player to turn on after I hit play. I have to count because otherwise it seems like an eternity with her screaming. Then last night something happened. When I was done nursing her around 3:00 a.m. she was totally out. Like out, out. I have no idea what came over me. I saw the bassinet from across the room and I went for it. I quickly, yet carefully walked across the bedroom all the while thinking, 'what am I doing? am I crazy? will this actually work?'. And then I slowly, slowly, slowly placed her ever so carefully in the bassinet. I quickly put the ginger bread cookie man on her tummy (a dear friend let us borrow it.. said it helped her colic child), held my breath and literally tip-toed to bed. I could hear her rustling in the bassinet. 'Oh no, it's over' I thought. So I closed my eyes really tight and started repeating, 'Please God let her sleep. Please God let her sleep.' Over and over again. It worked. The Lord heard me. I didn't think she would last more than three minutes. But I was wrong. She slept a full three hours in her bassinet. That's huge for us. Craig and I were both stunned. Shocked. Blown away. I went for a run this morning (my mental health break) and she got fussy. Craig went for it too. He put her down in the bassinet. No 'miracle blanket', no ginger bread cookie man. He went cold turkey on her (ok, he did turn on the white noise). And again, she slept. Craig and I were in such disbelief neither one of us could talk about it. But I had to break the ice. I had to understand what was happening here. My voice shaking a bit due to the fact I was still so stunned I asked Craig, 'how did you do it? how did you get her to sleep like that?' So very methodically, very precisely, he told me the story of how it happened. I hung on every word. I didn't want to miss a beat. Could our child actually be ready to sleep without the constant motion of the swing? Well, not quite. Her afternoon nap didn't go so smooth. I caved and put her in the swing. But tonight I gave it another shot. Again, no 'miracle blanket', no ginger bread cookie man, nothing. I put her in her bassinet and walked out of the room. She cried. Hard. So I went in and went through the process of swaddling her, kissing her, and just as I was about to put her in the swing I did a u-turn and headed for the bassinet. I just simply put her in there. Held my breath. And she was fine. May I repeat, she was fine. I have no idea what's going on here. I don't know if this is just a good day or what. But today, today was a really a good day. Finally.