New Night Routine

Since Natalie was born, I always held and rocked her to sleep...usually after a feeding. Unfortunately, in the past couple of weeks, Natalie had become extremely crabby when she was tired and would fight sleep really bad when I would start to try and rock her or make any attempts at getting her to sleep. The only way that I could get her down was to feed her, which I knew was not the most ideal way to get her to sleep each night/for a nap. A few times in desperation, Joel or I would even have to pack Natalie up in the car and drive around until she finally gave up and slept.
I asked a few of my friends who are mommies how they got their kids to sleep and almost all of them said that I needed to start simply putting her down and letting her cry it out. Boy, that did not sound like a fun idea. However, I was willing to try. I had also read about the importance of a routine even at this age.
So with these two tidbits in mind on Monday night I decided to try a new routine. I gave Natalie a bath, gave her a little massage with baby lotion, put on her pjs, brought in a stereo into her room to play lullaby classical music, and put her down in her crib wide awake. I was ready to hear all kinds of screaming and crying for 30-45 minutes or more....But that never happened! She fussed a bit, then cried for maybe 5 minutes, then was sound asleep. Joel and I couldn't believe it! It worked!
So Tuesday night, I went through the exact same routine at the exact same time. At 7:45, we immediately stopped our playing and went through the same routine. Natalie fussed for about 4 minutes, cried for 3, then sound fell asleep!
I wondered if I could get a third night in a row. Today Natalie only slept for about 40 minutes at day care all day (she has really been struggling with napping at day care, but I don't have much control over that). So Natalie had begun getting a bit fussy and rubbing her eyes, so I started our routine about 20 minutes early. When I laid her in the crib, she just kind of rolled around for about 3 minutes, cried for 1 minute, and was completely asleep within 6 minutes! I am so happy and proud of my little girl! This change has made such a difference to the whole atmosphere of our evenings! I am so thankful for great advice and a great little girl!