Happy Heart

I am so proud of this little boy:

Now, I have been through three natural childbirths, and, call me crazy, but I would rather go through that then what I went through last night. So after a week of absolute struggle, exhaustion, and frustration with trying to get Declan to sleep (and stay asleep) in his crib, we (well Ryan convinced me) decided to just go through our bedtime routine, put Declan in his crib and then *GASP* leave the room. Ryan said he'd go back in after 10 min, reassure him, and then leave. After the first visit, Ryan came downstairs and said "I'm not going in there anymore---I think that just made it worse." So Declan spent the next hour crying for anyone he could think of. And I spent that next hour in a horrible mood, seriously feeling like I wanted to throw up, and feeling lucky that my mom and Ryan were here to keep me in check so that I didn't run up there and grab him out of his crib and rock him to sleep. So he finally passed out, curled up on top of his stuffed animals and get this: HE SLEPT ALL NIGHT! I woke up numerous times seriously wondering why he hadn't woken up yet (see what I was going through with him?!?). I finally got out of bed at 5:30am just to peek in on him...still curled up fast asleep. I checked on him again at 8:00am...still fast asleep. And at 8:30am, we heard him "mommy! mommy!" and Ryan and I were slightly competitive about who was going to get him out of his crib...can you tell we were pretty freaking excited!? So Ryan won, and he got him and brought him down as we all literally CELEBRATED Declan falling asleep and staying asleep all by himself. Isabella was seriously searching for something that we could be proud of her for, so we had another celebration because she slept ALL night without her pacifier (woo-hoo for the child who never touched a pacifier until she was 3yrs old, and is now in love with it...but that's another story). So Declan was pretty proud of himself. I was proud, happy, etc, but all day I had my mind on tonight. Terrible, I know.

So we got home from Ryan's co-worker's wedding reception. Gave Declan and Isabella their "nighty-night" tea (no, I am not making it up, it's really called that),

took them upstairs to get pj's on, brush teeth, and read a book. Declan was already getting anxious as he always does before bedtime. Ryan took him to his room, he cried out once, but then was fine. They read their story and Ryan put him in his crib, said goodnight, and came downstairs. Declan started crying as expected, but before I even headed upstairs to put Isabella to bed, Declan had stopped crying. So how long did he cry for? Five, yes I said 5, FIVE minutes! And then for about 15 more minutes he would sporatically call out "MAMA! DADDY!" and then stop. And within a half hour of going down, he was out like a light, and he only cried for a fraction of that time.

I am so happy for him. I think this is what he needs. I'm happy for us. That Ryan and I won't be overwhelmed with sheer exhaustion by the time our bedtime routine is over...leaving us, as a couple, with enough time to say "well, that sucked, goodnight." Just kidding, we didn't really do that exactly, but we weren't thrilled with the 30 minutes of peace it left us with at night before we ourselves were ready to pass out.

**update: He slept all night...again, and tonight he cried for 45 seconds...I think we have success!**