Jinxed

Do you remember when I bragged about how well D was sleeping?

No?

Well, I don't actually remember if I wrote about it here (and I'm too lazy to look and see) but I did mention it to several people in casual conversation. D was an excellent sleeper up until a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, she'd fall asleep between 7 and 8, sleep until I half-roused her to nurse a bit at 11, then she'd sleep until about 5. It was wonderful.

Now? She sleeps from about 8 until midnight, then 12:30 until about 2. Then she's often up at 3, 5, and 7 when I wave the white flag and know that I'm pretty much up for the day because the other two kids are getting up anyway. (And this is actually a slight improvement over her sleep habits just last week.)

I thought it was because she was still in the bassinet and she was getting too big for it. So we cleaned out the bedroom, rearranged, and Craig set up the crib.

The first night I put her in the crib she lay awake and cooed and talked to herself extremely loudly. Hey, at least she was cheerful I guess.

The next night she wasn't so cheerful. The moment her little body hit the mattress she woke up screaming. I figured she didn't like the hard mattress. She's actually probably pretty used to sleeping on pillows (because she lays on a pillow when she's nursing most of the time) or on our big bed. So, while I know it's a no-no, I made her mattress slightly softer by putting a folded-up blanket under the mattress pad and sheet. That's got her to the two-hour chunks of sleeping increments, which is an improvement I suppose.

Except now I lay awake sometimes worrying about the slightly softer surface she's sleeping on. Although she is strong enough to lift her head up, and push herself up with her arms I still know she really shouldn't be sleeping on the soft surface like that.

Her brother slept on the pillow top of our bed quite often right from the beginning. I'm worried that I got lucky the first time I tempted fate.

Cry it out really isn't an option for us since she rooms with Craig and I and I don't want him to be kept up at night when he has to work. As it is, when Craig gets up at 4 or 5, then D comes into the big bed with me...and then she sleeps better again because she can nurse and sleep while mom is still sleeping too.

It's a catch-22. Hard bed and no sleep or softer bed and a little risk but more sleep.

What would you do? What have you done?