Sleep

Penelope is finally sleeping through the night.

I've waited a month to write about it for fear that it was a fluke or that as soon as I proclaimed her new, awesome sleep habits, she would revert back to waking once an hour. But I'm not scared anymore. She is a solid sleeper now and I'm shouting it from the rooftops!

Last month, JD and I were at our wits end. No one was sleeping in our house except for Beatrice. We tried a short cry-it-out stint when Penelope was 6 months old, but she wasn't ready. Or maybe we weren't ready. Whatever the excuse, it wasn't effective so we endured another month of being up all night for no other reason except that our baby liked to see us all night long.

That was the miserable thing about the sleeplessness: she didn't need anything. She didn't nurse, she didn't need a pacifier, she just wanted to see us. All. Night. Long. After a night of waking every 45 minutes until morning, we said enough is enough. We were sleep training this baby.

We decided that JD's sleep was the most important priority since he works for a living. I work, just not for a living. So he slept in the basement on the foldout couch for a few nights while I endured the dreaded crying.

We were prepared for the worst, but miracle upon miracles she only cried for 1 night. 1 long night of endless crying and then, she started sleeping through the night. She has slept 12 solid hours ever since without so much as a peep throughout the night. She was ready. We all were ready.

If you've ever had a baby that didn't sleep very well and then started sleeping through the night, you know how we feel right about now: relieved, happy, rested. I could say we should have done it sooner, if only we stuck with sleep training at the 6 month mark we all could have been sleeping much sooner, but we believe she only cried for 1 night because she was ready for it. I don't think the process would have been as painless if we did it any sooner.

Life is pretty great for all of us now. We sleep, she sleeps, Beatrice continues to sleep like nothing ever changed. It's great. She does wake a lot earlier now that we're not up all night, but that has been an easy adjustment to make. I usually bring her into bed with me for early morning milkies and snuggles, then we get up and have coffee (me) and Cheerios (her) while the rest of the house sleeps (Beatrice). It's a sweet little routine.

Sleep is good. I'm glad we're finally getting some.