Mama's BEST Christmas Present

Cole gave me an early Christmas present this year.  Y'know what it was?


SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!


Cole slept through the night for the FIRST TIME EVER on Saturday night!  AHHHH!  Mama got to sleep from 11:30 PM to 7:00 AM... without ANY night-time feedings!


Monumental, right?  Well, I think so, anyway.  It's always a huge, wondrous development when a baby reaches that point that he/she no longer insists on eating at night.  I guess, to be honest, this was a Christmas gift that I strongly encouraged, because we started sleep-training on Thursday.  (Lesley inspired me.  Her baby girl Helen -- who is almost two months younger than Cole -- sleeps 12 hours a night regularly.  I almost whimpered when I read that.)


Anyway, we used the same sleep-training technique that we used with Weston.  And to highlight the difference in their personal degrees of stubbornness, it took Cole 2 nights, and it took Weston 10 nights.  (Yes, Weston stuck it out SO long that he would cry for 70 - SEVENTY - minutes straight before he was finally able to fall back asleep and eventually stop eating at night.  The more I learn about Cole, the more I'm actually learning about Weston.  Hahaha!  My lovely, funny, fiesty, stubborn-as-a-mule little Weston.)


So, on Thursday night, I turned on the baby monitor, placed the kitchen timer (set to 10 minutes) on the nightstand, and went to sleep.  Each time that Cole woke up and fussed, I'd turn off the monitor and turn on the timer.  When the timer beeped, I'd wake up again and check to see if Cole was still crying.  Only ONCE was he still crying after the 10-minute interval, so I got up and fed him that one time.  The other times, he just (somehow) soothed himself and fell back asleep!!  On Friday night, the second night, I did the same thing, but I set the timer to 20 minutes.  And again, only once was he still crying after the 20-minute interval, so I fed him then.


And then... on the third night... NO WAKE-UPS AT ALL!!!!  BAAAAHHH!!!!  I couldn't believe that it happened so quickly and relatively effortlessly.  Of course, it was one of those mornings that, as I was getting dressed, I was certain that Cole was dead in his crib.  (That's always what I think when they sleep through the night for the first time.)  Lo and behold, he was just dozing ever so peacefully, and I eventually got him up at 8:00.  (And I promptly fed him.  Because... well... you know, girls.)


So... YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!  COLE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!  Oh joy of joys!!!  Sigh.  Finally I can sleep again!  I don't sleep when I'm pregnant and I don't sleep with a newborn.  But finally... over a year has passed, and now Mama can sleep again.  And I feel SO. RESTED. right now.  Thanks, little buddy, for the early Christmas present!  I couldn't have hoped for anything better!!!

My little sleepin' champ