Mr. Sandman...

...please come visit our house!!
I know that in a few short years I'll look back on this time and wonder why I was so concerned with Hadley's sleep. By then she'll probably be sleeping just fine in her OWN bed and I'll wonder why I was so frantic to get her on a sleep schedule, right??
That's what I keep telling myself, anyway. Hadley is officially one of the worst sleepers in the world. She hates naps, hates going to sleep at night and hates her crib. Basically, she's a social animal that would much rather hang out with us during the day and night and can't understand why we would ever put her in a dark room in a *gasp* crib.
To combat this, I finally purchased a parenting book that was recommended by the lovable Dr. Sears called The No Cry Sleep Solution. Since Levi and I are not "cry-it-out" fans, this book seems to have some great ideas, I'm just worried it's too late to start Hadley on new ideas, but then I remember she's only seven months old and some people have children as old as two still getting up three or four times in the night.
Our first goal is to get Hadley to take longer naps and to fall asleep in her crib, rather than in our arms. Second goal is to get her to fall asleep at night in her own crib and be able to fall back asleep in there through the whole night. Currently we end up co-sleeping about 50% of the night and, while having Hadley in bed with us is nice and cozy and sweet, I can already tell she's depending on it, plus my back is tweaked from not being able to spread out. Third goal is to have her wake up less frequently in the night. Currently, she's up between 3-4 times a night (as much as when she was a newborn) and I can't wait for the day that it's only 1-2. That would be DIVINE!
I know all of these problems are problems created by us. We knew that rocking her to sleep in our arms would come back to haunt us, but how could we resist! It took us so long to get Hadley here, and for all we know she might be our only child, so we absolutely love holding her until she falls asleep...we just can't do it for much longer.
Hadley is such a great baby, other than her sleep habits. I just have to remember that this is a temporary thing and won't be something that plagues us for the rest of our lives. In the long run, ensuring Hadley knows that she is loved and in a secure, safe home is the absolute most important thing. I love that little girl so much and would do anything for her...we all just need a little more sleep! :)