We never sleep trained Lil Miss Wagon. She always fell asleep drinking her bottle before naps and bedtime, and had no problems transferring to the crib. Eventually we were able to put her down awake and she was able to fall asleep on her own with no problems. We never had to let her cry, and if she did cry, we didn’t let her cry for more than a few minutes. She started sleeping through the night on her own around 8 months.

She’s had her share of regressions, and her latest one was a doozy. For about a week, she would not fall asleep on her own. She would cry whenever we left her, so we would hold her until she fell asleep. One Saturday night, she cried as I left the room and I decided to let her cry for a while.

After 25 minutes of crying, she stopped suddenly. She stayed standing in her crib, in the corner closest to the door, completely silent. FOR TWO HOURS. She laid her blankie across the crib rail and rested her cheek on it and she would fall asleep standing up. Then she’d sway and start to fall, wake back up and straighten back up again.

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After two hours of this (and watching her on the video monitor, convinced that she HAD to sit down at some point!), I just could not let her still be awake at 9:30pm so I went in and held her. She fell asleep almost instantly. Once I was sure she was asleep, I laid her in her crib and she didn’t move a muscle. I crept out of the room, watching her the entire time, and made my way back downstairs.

I looked at the video monitor and lo and behold, she was standing up again. In the same exact spot as before. Not a cry or a tear. Just standing again.


After another hour of this, she was really tiring and every time she’d sway and fall asleep, she’d let out a little cry. It was like she was refusing to give in and sit down, but her body was failing her at this point. She wasn’t even upset that I wasn’t coming back in… she was upset that her body was starting to falter, even though her will was still iron strong. I eventually went back in around 11:00pm and held her until she fell asleep for good.


I learned several things that night.

  1. My big strong girl is a really big, really strong girl. Even though she can’t really stand on her own yet, she’s able to stay standing (supporting herself on the crib rail) for hours at a time. I don’t even think I could do that.
  2. If we didn’t have a video monitor, we would have assumed the entire time that she had stopped crying and fallen asleep, and was sleeping peacefully for hours!!
  3. There is, in fact, someone on this earth more stubborn than me. And it’s my own daughter. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at this.
  4. When she’s a teenager, our mother/daughter fights are going to be epic. EPIC.
  5. My mom finally has her revenge on me for all those years of teenage rebellion. I’m sorry, mom. I really am. You have your revenge, and her name is LMW.
  6. As stubborn as I am, there is one person in this world that can break me. TWICE in a row. And her name is LMW.

The night of The Standoff seems to have been a turning point, though. The next day’s naps had a few cries and whines as I left her room, and the dreaded standing stance yet again, but she quickly laid down. She even rolled around and played, stood back up, and laid back down.


So the final lesson?

No matter how the battles go, all that counts is winning the war. (Check out the surrender below… hands up!)


Have you dealt with an epic bedtime showdown?