Zoe learns a very clever new trick

Yesterday for the first time Zoe managed to settle herself off to sleep for her daytime nap. Until now, I've been putting her in bed and then rocking constantly until she falls asleep, and usually even beyond that as she wakes herself up 4 or 5 times.

The Save Our Sleep book talks about putting the baby to bed awake and letting them self-settle. It says that they will 'protest', which will gradually diminish until they eventually fall asleep. We did try this a couple of weeks ago, but it just didn't work and it was really upsetting because we had to listen to Zoe cry. She also seemed to get more, not less, upset.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to leave her for 5 mins after putting her to bed and before starting the rocking to give her a chance to fall asleep. I went downstairs and she did the 'protest' wingeing for about 5 mins and then started to go quiet, so I stayed downstairs to see what would happen.

After a few minutes, she protested quietly again, then once more, then nothing. I went up to check and sure enough , she was asleep - hurrah!!! I was so excited and happy that she had managed it all on her own without the 45 mins of rocking. What a result! Just to prove it wasn't a fluke, she did it again last night. It didn't work so well this morning but then worked well again this afternoon.

I am so relieved that she is finally understanding how to go to sleep. It will make life much less stressful for us both.

The self-settling wasn't Zoe's only trick yesterday. I put her down on her playmat for some tummy time and walked out of the room for a moment. When I came back, she'd rolled back onto her back. I couldn't believe it - another greal leap forward in development. Maybe its no co-incidence that these things happened together.

We also took Zoe to the beach for the first time today. We had a lovely day, just sitting in the beach shelter with her lying between LH and I and chatting away to us. We didn't take her near the water because I didn't want to expose her to any sun at all but perhaps next time we will dip her toes in the water. LH did pour sand all over her feet, which she really enjoyed.

I also took Zoe for a walk in the botanic gardens on Friday. She really enjoyed lying on her back under a tree and looking at the leaves. It was so nice to leave the house. Even though I try to get out at least once a day, I still feel really caged in staying at home all the time. Lovely husband can think of nothing better but I have always liked getting out and about.

The weekends are so much easier when LH is here because we can share the nappy changes, baths, bedtimes, bottle feeds and so on. It really helps to have someone else take over for a while. I'm not one of those mothers that thinks only I can do things best for Zoe. I really trust LH to look after her, which does make life easier.