night night.

Last night, two days shy of 7 weeks, John and I decided that it was time to move Brooks into his nursery to sleep at night. I started putting him in his crib during nap time a week or so ago to "test the waters" and he seemed to do just fine in there. But, the real reason for the transition was sleep. Our sleep. Our nights have been quite restless with Brooks sleeping in the cradle next to our bed due to all the coos, grunts, and whimpers that he makes. I will admit, being able to reach over and pop that paci back in his mouth or rock the cradle gently to help him fall back asleep have been convenient, but this mommy and daddy need undisturbed sleep BAD. 

Yesterday afternoon I was finally able to grab the monitor that we are borrowing from Lea and Bradley. After little man's bath and bottle I prepared his room for the night, but it wasn't until after I put him down, walked out into the den and was met with John's comment, "I can't believe you aren't an emotional wreck right now," that the tears started flowing. Was I really ready for this? Was Brooks? 

Here's how it went down:

We decided to bump Brooks' bedtime up from 9:00 to 7:00. At 5:45 he had a bath, at 6:00 he had a bottle and by 7:00 he was swaddled up and ready for night night. I rocked and prayed over him for about 15 minutes and at the first sign of dozing off I stuck him in the crib. By 7:30 he was asleep (we never have issues with him going down at night, so no shocker there). 

The rest of the night was a mess. Typically, Brooks' first sleep stretch ranges from 4-5 1/2 hours (calculated from the beginning of a feeding to the time he wakes up), the next sleep stretch ranges from 3-3 1/2 hours, and the last only two hours, which means the two of us are waking twice (sometimes three times) a night. Last night, we got up FOUR times. Yes, four. By 6:30 a.m. I was desperate for some shut eye so I went into the nursery, swooped Brooks up, brought him back to our room and let him sleep on my chest for two hours. Definitely not the outcome that I had hoped for. 

But, we both survived (I was more worried about my emotional, hormonal self here), so I would chalk it off as a success. The hardest part is behind us. Here's to aiming for more sound sleep tonight...and self-control from turning on the monitor screen :)