Night Three

Last night I had one of those situations where you don't know what to do.
I tried putting Isabella down for a nap around 5pm as she was tired but wouldn't go to sleep. So she stayed up and by 7pm was wiped. So I fed her at 7pm and she was out! I told myself I was only going to let her sleep for an hour so I could put her back down for the night at around 9/9:30pm. So after getting the big kids in bed it was 8:30pm and she was still sleeping. Optimistic me thought maybe if I leave her, she will sleep through the night as the Sleep Sense program said to put her down between 7/8pm. I thought maybe this was the trick! Ya, not so much!
She woke up at 9pm ready to go. She played till 10pm and I started putting her back down. We went through all the usually techniques again tonight. Fed her to sleep but she woke up when i put her down, tried rubbing her back and shushing her, womb bear going, aquarium on, picking her up to stop crying and putting her back down then letting her cry. I let her cry for about 20 minutes and with no sleep insight, i went in and took her to my bed. I was beat and couldn't stand to do anymore rocking of any kind. She wrestled around for a bit and I actually feel asleep before she did but when i woke up an hour later around 12:30am, she was asleep. I put her back in her own crib and she is still sleeping.... going on 9 1/2 hours!
Yay for sleeping through the night for the third night in a row but not so much for my tata's lol I'm so used to feeding her in the night that my body is not used to not feeding for this long! I feel like Niagara Falls over here lol I would pump but it is in her closet in her room and there is no way I am going in there! So I will just suffer it out and hope she is really hungry when she wakes up.... then take the pump out of her room ;0)
I also went to the library yesterday and got an army of sleep books to start going through. The first one I looked through is Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler & Preschooler. I thought I would like this one as it is written by Ann Douglas who wrote the Mother Of All Pregnancy Books, a book that I swore by when pregnant with all my kiddos. But going through it, she doesn't seem the have a sleep "plan" at all. All of her suggestions are sleep crutches... something I need to get away from.
Her first suggestion actually to get a baby to fall asleep is to nurse them to sleep! I was shocked! She also suggests swaddling, getting your baby naked, soothe with sounds like the white noise machines, lullaby's swishing and shushing noises, sounds and vibrations, getting them in motion, holding them, infant massage, giving them a soother or some type of teddy bear or transitional item.
I have tried all of these but it still isn't going to solve the basic problem of getting her to fall asleep on her own. The author did suggest one thing that I might try. She said to take one of the baby's crib sheets and either sleep with it or stuff it in your shirt for a few hours to get your scent on it them put it back in the baby's crib so they can smell you. I may try this one and see if it helps... although, I'm not holding my breathe.
So on to more research today to see if we can find a system that will work for us and we will see what new adventures go on tonight!