Guess What Joe Did?!

In Joe's baby book there is a spot to write down how old he is when he first sleeps through the night. It's listed with other early infancy milestones such as "When baby first holds up head" and "First smiles." I have everything written down in that early infancy milestone page except the "sleeping through the night" spot. I figured I'd have to wait until Joe was five years old before I could write anything down there.

Joe has never slept thought the night. I see facebook statuses of one month old babies sleeping through the night and I always wonder if I will ever get to see that day (or night, I should say.) There was a couple weeks that he would sleep in his crib all night, as opposed to sleeping with me, but he would still wake up about three or four times to nurse or need comfort.

The past month or so Joe has switched up his sleeping schedule. He'll go to sleep in his crib around 7:00, and I would usually bring him into bed with me at his first waking to nurse him. He'd usually fall asleep all cuddled next to me. He doesn't really like to do that anymore. I'll nurse him and he'll start freaking out until I put him back in his crib and he'll drift off to sleep. I still have to get up a few times to nurse him. Then he usually is awake at 6:30 ready to go play, and I can usually get him to go back to sleep for a little bit longer, but it's sometimes a challenge.

These past few weeks Joe has been perpetually fussy. His molars are coming in... Those evil, evil molars. Joe has never really had a problem with teething until now. The only thing that helps is Advil. He doesn't like teething toys or cold washcloths. He is skipping his naps and getting up a lot more at night and it's just been plain rough.

Last night was horrible. He woke up around 11:15 screaming and arching his back. He wouldn't nurse. He wouldn't take a binky. We had give him Advil about 2 hours before. We took his temp and he didn't have a fever or even a slightly high temperature. Holding him wasn't helping. We tried to put some teething tablets under his tongue but he'd push them out. I finally dissolved them in water and rubbed them on his gums and that didn't seem to work. I put him in his crib because I thought maybe he just didn't want to be around us. He still screamed, but after a few minutes he calmed down and went to sleep.

I was preparing for a disastrous night of no sleep. I had to babysit the next morning, and the little baby girl I watch is also teething, so I was really dreading the coming hours. I went to bed as soon as he drifted off- probably around midnight. Usually when I 'm nervous about him waking up a lot I can't sleep, but I must have been more tired than I thought because I fell asleep rather quickly.

Joe started screaming and crying. I put on my glasses and looked at the clock, figuring it would be about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning since that is when he usually wakes up next. It was 6:00!!! I could barely believe my eyes! Did we actually get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep?! I racked my brain... surely I got up once during the night. But no, I'm usually good at remembering stuff like that. Did he cry and I sleep through it? He is in the same room as me and his cries can get pretty loud, so I doubted I slept through.

I brought him into bed to nurse and he nursed for a long time, so that must mean it was awhile since I last fed him. I figured he'd be ready to party, but we both fell back asleep, cuddled nose to nose and when he woke up again it was 8:30!

I think technically a baby "sleeping through the night" means the baby gets 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Well, he definitely did last night! You have NO idea how excited I am!

Will this last? Oh dear Lord in Heaven, I hope so! Joe is growing and changing. He is right now boycotting his morning nap. I can see him on the baby video monitor just chilling with his stuffed animals. He isn't crying, so I'm leaving him in there for awhile so he can just relax.

Joe slept through the night!!! Huzzah!!!