I didn't want to post this too soon in case I jinxed it. But it seems to be a well established habit, so I can now share with all of cyberspace that my baby daughter officially sleeps through the night in her own crib in her own room!
Almost two weeks ago, Chris and I moved Alexandra's crib upstairs into my craft room. We put her in it to sleep and she screamed for 20 minutes, breaking our will and we let her sleep with Mom again. The next day I tried putting her into for a nap, just to see what would happen. She screamed for 45 minutes off and on until I finally turned off the vacuum that was drowning out said screams and rescued her. We kept putting her in, letting her scream for a while, taking her back out. Totally against what every sleeping book says to do, I know. But she is my last baby. And I absolutely adore sleeping next to my babies. I love listening to their rhythmic breathing. I love the way they ooch closer to me in their sleep if I roll away from them. I love falling asleep with my lips on their soft fuzzy heads while they nurse at 3 am. And now that is all over with, forever.
For the past 4 nights in a row, she has slept from about 10 at night until 9 or so, in the morning, in her crib. I started out laying her in there already asleep, and hoping she just wouldn't wake up during the transfer. But tonight, I laid her in there sort of awake/sort of asleep. She made one little grunt noise at me while I was covering her up with her blanket. I rubbed her head, said goodnight, shut the door and …nothing. No screaming, no crying, she just closed her eyes and went to sleep. That is huge progress right there. So even though I will miss all the cuddling, I won't miss the waking up 2 times a night to nurse her. She didn't really need to nurse, but I think I would sometimes wake her up just with my presence, and then she would want to nurse to fall back asleep. Now that she is all alone, she is actually sleeping better. Whoda thunk it?
I love having a full 7.5 hours uninterrupted sleep time. And not having to tiptoe out of the room in the morning, in case I wake them up. And it is rather nice, after 14 months, to fall asleep to Chris' rhythmic breathing, with his nice cool feet keeping me from being too hot. (I am serious on that one, my feet always get so hot, and his are so nice and cold, it's a win-win situation) Now that Alexandra has moved out, he has moved back in. He had been sleeping upstairs in his office, since I seem to be the only parent who likes having a wiggly baby in bed with me. So it's nice and it's sad at the same time.
The other bummer is I can't be play in my craft room after she falls asleep, since she is in there. It is only temporary, until she gets on a really good schedule. Then we can move her in with the girls and I can have my play area back. But still, I am working on several projects and it is kind of frustrating to be "wasting" all this good creative time. Oh well, in 4 years I will be whining about being too bored with all the kids gone to school all morning. Ha!
Wow! I'm jealous.
This post is so bitter sweet! I am so happy that you can get some continuous sleep but it is sad that she is your last baby. I am so proud of her for going to sleep in that big scary room all by herself dreaming all the craft supplies are going to attack her!