Better Than Ice Cream!

Have you ever heard that song that goes, "Your love is better than ice cream. Better than anything else that I've tried."? Well I found out what that is for me, and it's not love (at least in this blog). I can finally tell you all that for the first time since I got pregnant with Samuel, I was able to pretty much sleep through the night. I had to get up with Genevieve a time or two, but she is much easier to deal with being able to tell me what is wrong.

The whole process started when we moved into our apartment. When I was staying in Kansas, I wasn't able to put him in his own room. So after a long day, he'd just end up in bed with me because it was easier to co-sleep than to mess with all the up and down. I didn't like the idea so much, but I was so tired I didn't care. So when we got here, we had many things to work on. We had to get use to the time change, have him start to sleep on his own, and get him to sleep through the night.

The first two were pretty easy. I was able to get us all on the time change before we left the hotel. It took us about a week, but after that we adapted, and we were good to go. Samuel was the only one that didn't really seem phased by the time change. He usually slept all night and even through the times the rest of us were up. That was one thing down.

When we moved to our apartment, for the first time ever, Samuel finally had his own room. The first night was hard, but we put him in his room to go to bed. He had gone to bed on his own (in the room I was in, but just alone) before, but never stayed alone all night. The first night he cried for what seemed like forever (probably only 30 or 45 mins). I'd go in and check on him after 20 mins or so, and it seemed to just make things worse. After 3 or 4 nights, he went to bed like a champ. I can tell when he's getting tired, and he just goes down. There is a little crying, but nothing major.

At his 9 month check up, I talked to the doctor about sleeping through the night. I was sure I could stop nursing him at night, but I just wanted to make sure. Sometimes I think my brain went out the window. I mean I have had one kid already. I should know all this stuff. Anyway, I asked the doctor about him, and she said it was fine for him to stop nursing at night.

Even though that was the answer I wanted, part of it was sad. I mean my baby is growing up very fast. It took about 2 or 3 nights for me to muster up enough courage to tackle dealing with him crying at night. I finally made up my mind it was time. I mean I knew in the end the few nights would totally be worth the few that I'd be up. So I just decided to go for it.

The first night was horrible. He was up a lot. I'd go in after a bit and get him to calm down (of course when I left it made it worse), and he'd sleep for a bit. Then after what seemed like 10 mins, we'd start all over again. I was so tired by the end of that first night, I was ready to give up. A girl on a message board I frequent told me to hang in there and not give up. She reminded me if I gave in just once, I'd have to start all over. I sure didn't want that.

Night two was much better. He was up a few times, but nothing like the night before. I could go in, pat him, and leave. He'd get really mad and cry for about a min. Then after that, he'd go to sleep. When he went back to sleep he'd sleep for a few hours at a time. It felt great.

Last night was night four. I have to say that he slept all night (from 6:45 pm to 7:45 am), and it was the best sleep I've had in awhile. It was so nice to be able to just get up once with Genevieve, get her what she told me she needed, and go right back to bed. At 7:45 I nursed him, and we both went back to sleep for another hour or so. Like I said, I hadn't slep through the night since before I got pregnant with him. That is about 18 months now. That is a long time without a full nights sleep. I hope we can keep it up because I can totally get use to this!