You know, of all of the things I like to do with my time, napping and sleeping pretty much rank right up there as #1 and #2. Always have. And yet my offspring, bless her heart, fights sleep like it�s some form of torture. From day one, she has given sleep a run for its money and come out on top.

Early on, we�d rock her and rock her and nurse her and rock her, and she�d sleep a bit on top of us. If we put her in her own place to sleep, she�d wake right up and start bawling.

We tried her in a co-sleeper next to the bed. Hated it. We tried her in a bassinet next to the bed. Hated it. We tried her in her crib. Hated it. We tried her in the bed. Loved it � snuggled up closely right next to me, yay.

Not so yay for Mom. My Mommy radar is on its highest sensitivity these days, which means that every twitch and every sniffle has me on high alert. Not to mention that while I love sleep, and I love my family, I do NOT like to be touched by any of them while I am sleeping. Nothing makes me feel more penned in and stifled than to be touched while I�m sleeping.

So her sleep nighttime has been fair-to-middlin� over the past month or so, while mine has suffered. And she has refused any type of nap schedule, no matter what I�ve tried.

The result of all of this sleep havoc is that she�s a mess, I�m a mess, and Blue�s a mess. No one is sleeping well. We�re all cranky. And we�re all bitching at each other. And that�s not good.

Baby Catnip has her four-month well baby visit next week � so I figured that once she got the a-ok from the doc, we�d have to resort to some form of �crying it out� to get her to sleep. Weissbluth, Ferber � whatever.

Last night, however, she pushed it to the limit, and she learned to put herself to sleep.

Long story short � she skipped her second nap (as usual) and was exhausted all day long. After two and half hours of trying to get her to sleep (not exaggerating � two and half freaking hours), she started yelling at me. I knew - knew - that she was pooped to the core, but couldn�t sleep. So I told her I loved her, and that it was time for sleep, and then I put her in her crib and left the room.

I looked at the clock. I listened to her yell (not boo-hoo cry, but yell because she was mad and frustrated) for four minutes. And then the yelling stopped. She was OUT like a light. Bada-bing!

Aah. I felt bad for letting her fuss alone. But you know what? Four minutes of fussing alone versus day after day of sleep deprivation for her � look. What�s worse for her overall health and well-being? Seriously. Without sleep, how can she learn and explore and grow her little brain and body?

Tonight she stayed quiet for about five minutes in the crib before she realized I wasn�t kidding. Then she yelled for about seven minutes. Then she was out. A loud noise woke her up 15 minutes later � but I was able to pat her back and soothe her to sleep in her crib in about 60 seconds � something she has NEVER let me do before.

So I think we�re on the right track.