Sleeping like a baby

What does that really mean anyway?  Because in my opinion sleeping like a baby means that they sleep until that exact moment that you are soaping up your hair in the shower, sitting down to a hot cup of coffee, or worse yet- just as you have finally fallen back asleep in the middle of the night.

Last night, however, the meaning of sleeping like a baby aligned with it's true meaning of a very sound sleep.  The King and I decided it was time for the Princess to start sleeping in her crib.  Prior to last night, she had been residing in a hammock-like bassinet to sleep.  I had worked on getting her into the crib for naps to no avail.  It seemed like it would be a painful process and I was dreading it.  I even tried to convince the King that maybe she was not ready for a crib just yet and we should wait another week, but he insisted that there would be no "good time" and we should go for it.  So, we attempted to get her to go to sleep around 9:30PM, but between the Princess being wide-eyed, too warm pajamas, and a bonk to the head on a door frame it seemed like we were in for one helluva night.  And then what a difference one feeding made.  She was asleep within an hour and slept from 1AM until 9AM in her crib...unassisted!

That makes it sound easy, but in order to get her to fall asleep and what took place during the hour after her feeding  involved some of the following and can vary in combination on any given night:

1.  A swaddle sack (pictured above) with her arms swaddled in to start with.

2.  Walking lunges while whispering "Din-o-saur" in her ear (a baby yoga "magic pose").

3.  Just plain walking when my thighs burn from lunges.

4.  When her eyes close and the Princess deems appropriate for me to sit, we rock in the glider endlessly (or for 15-30 minutes...). 

5.  A white noise producing stuffed giraffe or Pandora's lullaby station.

6.  Putting a corn pillow in her bed prior to laying her down to make her bed warm and snuggly.

7.  Her wubbanub (a pacifier with a stuffed giraffe on the end) knowing when to insert and remove it to ensure that we will not be getting up every few minutes to put it back in her mouth on repeat.

8.  Putting her down extremely delicately and keeping your hands under her to ensure her eyes will remain closed before slowly and oh so carefully removing them.

9.  And yesterday I rigged up a system of rolling a blanket up and putting it in a "U" shape under the sheet and adding a cushion from her bassinet so that the crib feels more like her bassinet...

Before we had kids, I never could have imagined that it would take so much to get a baby to go to sleep...she should just naturally "sleep like a baby", right?

Does anyone else find themselves doing crazy things just to ensure a good nights sleep for their baby (and for them!)?