We've got a sleeper

Oh, what a beautiful sight..

This photo was taken this morning, after Luke's third night of sleeping through the night.

That's right. Third night.

So it went down like this...

Night One was Saturday. We got him ready for bed and put him in his crib at eight (with no bed time to speak of, we wanted to ease into putting him down early). Ryan stayed in the room with him, laying on the guest bed, while I took off. I thought it best that I leave the house entirely, so I went to Toys R Us to get the kids a present (and make myself feel better about the whole thing) and pick up a pizza.

Before I even checked out, Ryan had texted to say Luke was asleep.

All in all, it took an hour and five minutes. About 15 of that was happy-time, cooing/whining in his crib. Another 20 was a mix of whining, crying, and silence. And roughly 30 of it was harder crying, mixed with silence and that glorious sound of winding-down-crying.

On Night One he woke up about once an hour for the first few hours. The first time it happened, he fell back asleep before we had even decided what to do about it (he probably wasn't ever actually awake). Each time took approximately two minutes.

He cried twice in the night, but he fell back asleep on his own within minutes. He woke for good around 7:30 the next morning.

We never went in his room (just when he was sound asleep to check on him. I did that a lot). We never picked him up.

Night Two was very similar. This time I was in the room with him. He took a little longer over all to fall asleep - about an hour and twenty minutes - but a lot of that time was spent whining and dozing off (plus he got wedged in the corner and I made the decision to move him out, which might have made things last longer).

This time he only woke up once while we were still up and only cried very briefly in the night once. He woke for the day at 9:50 a.m. (12-and-a-half hours!).

That brings us to Night Three. Last night was the first night Ryan had to work, but we planned it so that Luke and Clara would go to bed while he was home for dinner. I stayed in the room with Luke and he cried immediately this time; no cooing or whining, he just got right into it.

It took him exactly an hour to fall asleep. And it was by far the hardest night for me, too. Having the support of your husband, actually present in the house, is invaluable. Thankfully, Clara fell asleep and stayed asleep, so that helped a lot.

To my surprise, he stayed sound asleep until 2:30, when he cried very briefly and fell back asleep on his own. He did that again at 5 a.m., and then awoke for the day at 8:30.

So it's safe to say we are ecstatic. But... I am hoping that he falls asleep quicker tonight. We had two goals going in: The first was that he would fall asleep on his own in his crib, and the second was that he would stay asleep a reasonable length of time. He's all over that second goal, but the first one has room for improvement.

Although, I will say, 30-60 minutes to fall asleep is WAY better than I expected.

Other things we're doing, in case you're wondering: We play the Frank Sinatra channel on Sirius in his nursery. It's the only thing we have ever found that calms him down so we knew that would be a must. And in case I was questioning its effectiveness, he woke up last night when I was trying to turn down the volume and the signal was lost. Don't ask Ryan about my silent-but-angry reaction to that. I think it involved telling Sirius I was going to kill it.

I also put the shirt I wore that day in with Luke. Now, I will say that I am very, very conservative when it comes to what goes in my babies' cribs, which means basically nothing but them for the first year. I made an exception here, while watching him very closely on the monitor and in-room checks, and we pull it out after he's fallen asleep. He cuddles with it and it does seem to help.

So that's it. Our current "problem" is that since he's getting SO much sleep at night, he clearly wants to nap more during the day. But I think I read somewhere that working on night-sleeping and naps at the same time may be too overwhelming (not sure if for the baby or parents). He has tried to nurse when he's tired the last couple days, which is reinforcing the habit we're trying to break him of at night. So, that's all to say that Ryan's in his room with him right now trying to get him to nap in his crib. Hopefully that's the right decision.

Oh, and yes, I have a ton of time at night and I'm not sure what to do with myself! I know, I should go to bed. And I will eventually. I'm still stalking the monitor for the time being.

And while I thought I'd miss having Luke with me in bed, it's been a very smooth transition. I can sleep on my side, roll over, get up to pee if I want. It's the little things.

I woke up yesterday morning feeling downright refreshed. I showered before Luke even woke up. We went for a walk. A walk! I hadn't had the energy or motivation in ages.

Thank you all so, so much for your prayers and support. This is really an answer to prayer. Luke needed sleep so badly. It's evident by how long he's now sleeping that he requires much more than he was getting.

And with that, he's currently napping in the next room in his crib. What a miracle.