WAHOOO!!

Beepers slept through the night last night. He slept from 9:30pm until 9:00am. It is a miracle! The last time he slept through the night was over a year ago. In a little over a month he will be three years old, and he has slept through the night less than a dozen times. I could probably tell you about every night that he has slept through the night, because it rarely ever happened. Hopefully it won't be that way anymore.

Until recently a normal night with Beepers went something like this-

1. Beepers put on his pajamas, brushed his teeth, and we read three books.

2. I laid with Beepers until he fell asleep playing with my hair. This was usually between 8:45 and 9:15. Sometimes it would take him an hour to fall asleep.

3. 60-90 minutes after going to sleep Beepers woke up with a night terror and would cry for 15-45 minutes. Beepers had night terrors 5 times a week.

4. Chad and I would go to bed and just before we drifted off to sleep Beepers would wake up screaming again.

5. I would go in his room and sleep in his toddler bed with him.

6. I would wake up around 2:00am and crawl into bed with Chad.

7. At 2:05 Beepers would get into bed with us.

8. I would walk Beepers back into his room and repeat the process three or four times in the night. Sometimes I was just too tired, and he would stay in our bed. Either way, I wasn't getting much sleep.

About a month ago, things changed. When I complained about Beepers sleeping to the pediatrician he gave me an article on sleeping. Basically it involved letting Beepers fall to sleep on his own. It was a bit more involved than that and included some things I didn't want to do, like locking him in his room.

It's not like we've never tried to get Beepers to fall asleep on his own. I guess it just wasn't the right time until now. It's frustrating that it took so long for him to sleep through the night, but at least he's not eighteen years old. Wahoo!