Oh, Mr. Sandman...

Let me start by saying - HALLELUIA!!!! It is official. Paige is sleeping through the night. Which really means, MAMA is sleeping through the night! I've waited until a full week passed with successful full-night sleeps to determine that this isn't a fluke. And as we approach the 9th night in a row, I think I'm ready to acknowledge that this is our new reality. YAHOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm back, Mr. Sandman.

I wish I could take credit for getting Paige to sleep through the night, but I'm pretty convinced she did it on her own. Yes, I loosely followed the "Baby Wise" methodology of "eat, awake time, sleep time", but ultimately - I fed Paige on demand, which she decided early on was every 2-3 hours. I did try and keep her awake after feedings, but that was successful about 60% of the time. I think it's true what they say in all the books and magazine articles - babies will sleep through the night when THEY are ready. And each baby is different.

So here's the play-by-play on how it happened on Monday, March 1 - the fateful night I will celebrate annually as "Mama's Day of Rest." My husband had to wake up early the next morning for work, so he asked if I would mind staying up with the Peanut so he could go to bed early. Up until that night, she wouldn't go down until around 11:30 p.m., and sleep 3-4 hours, then wake up around 3:00-ish to eat, and again at 6:30-ish, and finally wake up for the day around 9:00-ish. So I agreed to stay up. Keep in mind, this conversation happened at 9:15 p.m. After Daniel went up to bed, I made Paige a bottle, fed her, and before I knew it she was fast asleep. I thought maybe it was one of her cat-naps, but figured I would try and put her in her crib anyway. I put her down, turned on her "Sleep Sheep" and with fingers crossed, tip-toed out of the room. At around 9:45 p.m., I bee-bopped into the bedroom where Daniel was still awake reading. He said, "Where's the baby?" And with an ear-to-ear grin, I said, "Sleeping!!!" And that was basically it. She slept that night (any every night since) until about 5 a.m. Then she eats, and takes a nap a little while later until around 8:30 a.m. For the past 8 nights, we give the Peanut a bath around 8:30 p.m., put on her PJs, feed her, and she falls asleep at 9:30 pm on the dot. Every night. Not a minute before.

So what do we do now with this new found freedom in the evenings? SLEEP! As soon as she goes down, so do we. And it is ahhhh-mazing.