5 months and counting

So I haven't posted a lot and this will be fairly uninteresting, but I thought I'd take a minute to comment on Sam's sleeping. I keep asking my mom questions about when I did what and she says "I dunno, I'd have to look at your baby book" Well, being the bad mom I am, I don't have a baby book for Sam, sooo, I thought I'd post here before I forget.
On sleeping. I remember the first night she went more than 5 hours (or so) was the night after my brother's wedding. She slept straight through 8 hours and I kept checking on her in the last 2 hours to make sure she was ok!! It was a tiring evening for her, so I can imagine she was exhausted! That was at 6-7 weeks of age. The 8 hours didn't happen again for a couple more weeks.
Somewhere between 3-4 months, she started regularly sleeping 8 hours, on occasion 10 hours. Of course, when she went to bed at 7pm, getting up somewhere between 2-5am was still the middle of the night for me. Her pediatrician thought this was great though, so I didn't push to have her sleep 12 hours.
She regressed right after 4 months and started waking up all the time in the middle of the night and needing to be fed at least twice just so she'd go back to sleep. I thought at first it was traveling, then maybe a growth spurt. I think now it was because I had started nursing her to sleep even at nap time (because although she was sleeping well at night, naps weren't going well) Nursing her to sleep got her to take fairly good naps, but I think it messed her up during the night. After 3 weeks of getting up with her 4-6 times and feeding at least twice in the night, we started letting her cry at nap time and I did my best not to let her fall asleep while nursing (during the day) It cured the night time wake ups within a few days. Thank goodness. Because I was so tired and irritated that she was about to be an only child forever.
So at 5 months she made her first real all-nighter by sleeping 12 hours. She has now done this twice, I think and I'm really hoping we're getting closer to this being a regular thing. She takes 2-3 naps during the day, depending on how long they are. Usually she gets pretty fussy by 6pm, but I start cereal then and bath time and nursing and she can usually make it right to 7pm before she falls asleep. I think it has been 2 weeks since she was up past 7:15pm.
Today was beautiful for sleeping. I laid her in bed for nap #1 and she cried a few minutes, I put her paci back in her mouth and she fell asleep. Nap #2 she fussed about 30 seconds and put herself to sleep. And bedtime she was a little awake and fussed once and went to sleep on her own. New trend?? I sure hope so!
Most told me letting them cry it out worked after 3-4 days. I have been doing it somewhat consistantly at nap time and not consistantly at night (because she mostly falls asleep at the end of nursing) for about 3 weeks. This is because I'm a pushover and I don't like her to cry too much. I never let her go the alloted 5 minutes (usually its 2-3 minutes) And she still pretty much needs her pacifier to fall asleep. I also am not a wonderful scheduler and when we're out or we have people over or we're at someone's house....she's a little off and I don't usually let her cry. Or she's so tired watching people in the store that she falls asleep in the car on the way home and the schedule is off.
But what I did worked for me. I don't mind that it has taken 3 weeks for her to fall asleep without crying at all. I like how I did it and it fits my schedule. I hope it starts working more often and she cries less.
We are also (finally) slowly transitioning her to her own room. We tried in the midst of the 3 weeks of wakeful nights and thought that was also a contributing factor. We are being better now and going slowly (nap time but not night time) and I hope that it helps.
I write this all so that I remember for next time that things don't work like a book (unless maybe you are as strict as the book) and that some things do work better than others. I vow not to nurse the next one to sleep (at least not every nap time) and I hope to let them cry a little more than I let Sam cry at first. And the next one will come with their own personality unique with his/her setbacks and wonderful milestones.
I also want to work harder to enjoy every age. Now that Sam is sleeping better, she is so much more joyful during the day, she grins ALL the time and laughs pretty often. She is beautifully and wonderfully made.
Thank you Lord for a gorgeous, joyful daughter!