After months of having Jake sleeping right next to me in his bedside mini co-sleeper*, we decided it might be time to move him into his own room and his own crib. His room is beautiful and has been painted and decorated for months, and I even got around to hanging artwork on the walls recently. I thought it might be about time for him to actually use his room for something other than diaper changes. He enjoys being in his room, and we started to get him used to the crib by laying him in there for short periods of time while we did errands in his room (hanging his clothes, sorting his socks and bibs, stocking up his diaper supply, changing the bag in the diaper champ).
Well last night I took the plunge. Actually, I took a double plunge. I decided his current bedtime (somewhere around 11 pm when all is said and done) is just way too late for a baby, and he usually falls asleep somewhere else in the house before we put him down for the night. So last night, when he seemed a little sleepy, I took him up to his crib at 9 pm, and laid him down in his new soft and comfortable beautiful crib. He didn't fall asleep immediately, but he was certainly drowsy and calm and enjoyed his alphabet soup mobile for a few spins. I decided not to put in his pacifier, because when it falls out (which it will), he would fuss for it. When he is in his co-sleeper, it's no trouble to roll over, stick the pacifier back in, and fall back to sleep. But with him across the hall in his own bedroom, the trip is just sort of a pain. And itis never just once that the pacifier falls out. And his newest trick is that he can pull it out of his mouth (which he does over and over), but he hasn't mastered putting it back in by himself. He is capable of falling asleep without a pacifier, so I decided to try it.
I fell asleep somewhere in chapter one of my bookclub's newest selection (having just finished last month's book, The Glass Castle - loved it!), and woke up at 4 am - contacts in, lights on everywhere in the house, dog still needing to go out for her last potty of the night - and couldn't believe the baby was still sleeping! I got up, peeled the dry sticky contacts out of my eyes, let the dog out, turned off all the lights and checked on the baby again. Still sleeping. I knew he would cry the second my head hit the pillow. Amazingly, he slept 11 hours straight!!! He didn't fuss until 8 am, when he was hungry for that first morning bottle. He sucked a 10 ounce bottle bone dry.
Now he is back in his crib (I am attempting to see if he will nap so I can go back to sleep for a few hours), but he is making lots of noises - not crying, but talking and cooing to himself with a few grunts thrown in. I am afraid it will build up to a boredom cry because I know he won't bless me with getting to sleep in on a saturday, but I am just damn proud that he slept for 11 hours in his new crib.
*a newfangled bassinette that can be attached to the parents bed so baby sleeps right next to his parents, and at the same level, but in a safe and contained area of his own.
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