Sleeping Through the Night.

Last night was the first night in weeks that Adelyn woke up before six a.m. We've all become accustomed to our little bedtime and morning routine, so much so that when it's thrown for a loop my body definitely notices. (Waking up at three a.m. felt almost impossible, even though I've done it more times than I can count the past three and a half months--well, really eleven if you count the non-stop nocturnal bathroom trips during pregnancy.)

At three a.m. on the dot I heard her on the monitor. But it wasn't the usual crying. All I heard was "Ehh." And then nothing. I tried to close my eyes again. Two minutes later, "Ehhhh. Eh."

So begrudgingly I dragged myself out of bed and into her nursery, where she was laying wide-awake. She took one look at me standing over her crib and the biggest smile I've seen yet spread across her face. I was tired, so so tired, but you can't resist that smile. I smiled too, broken sleep aside.

But the episode made me realize just how lucky we are that Adelyn is sleeping so well at night. I sort of had an inkling from the beginning that we'd be blessed with a baby who liked to sleep. And I've read that the patterns they show in the beginning, although they can vary from week to week, stay pretty consistent throughout childhood. And even with that fact under my belt I'm almost scared to write about how well she sleeps because then the baby gods will come down and screw it all up.

I don't know if what Jason and I do has anything to do with Adelyn's nighttime routine or if it's completely random. I do know, however, that I'm not about to go messing with what works.

Around eight every night, the ritual starts. Every other night she gets a bath. After that, I give her a pseudo-baby massage (I say pseudo because I have no idea what I'm doing, I just slather on some Johnson & Johnson Nighttime Lavender Lotion and say job-well-done). We then change her into a comfy onesie and get ready to feed her the last bottle of the night, usually about 4 ounces. A lot of the time we sing to her during this last feeding, usually we just talk. In the beginning I read to her every night and I vow to do this more, starting tonight, in fact. Once she's almost finished, we lay her down in the crib on her Nap Nanny. Our doctor recommended this ridiculously-expensive product after I told her Adelyn liked to sleep propped up. My mom graciously got it for us otherwise I never could have justified spending so much on a contoured foam sleep thing, but Adelyn loves it. And, as it turns out, the thing is huge and she'll be able to use it for a long time to come.

(We don't strap her in because I'm evil and because I have no idea where she's gonna go all swaddled up inside of there.)

Then we turn on her noise machine. We have the Cloud B Sleep Sheep and love it--it clips right on to her crib. At first we used the heartbeat sound, but that started to sound sort of creepy to me night after night, so now we've switched to the sounds of the ocean.

We lay her on top of her swaddling blanket, already in the crib on top of the Nap Nanny, because she used to hate the act of being swaddled and this minimizes the disruption. We started out with the Miracle Blanket. That thing started to become more of a hassle than it was worth, though. The whole process of getting her in it took too long and upset her too much. And once we switched to the Halo Sleep Sack with swaddle, she started sleeping longer than ever. It's so much easier to get her in, it's so, so much softer, and I feel like it keeps her a little bit more cozy. Again, I have no idea if her improved sleep is by chance or because it's a great product, but I'm not gonna second guess it.

Finally, we feed her the rest of the bottle. Adelyn hates pacifiers and looks at me like a crazy person when I try to give her one. But she usually polishes off another half an ounce in her crib, and then once her eyes are good and heavy Jason and I leave the room and shut the door.

Because Adelyn is going to bed earlier (between eight and nine), Jason and I get a few hours of alone time to, you know, watch and discuss Lost without screeching in the background.

I've said it before and I'll say it again--sleeping through the night is the newborn-parenting holy grail. That first time you get it, when suddenly your eyes shoot open and you realize you've been sleeping for hours uninterrupted, once you get over the initial paralyzing fear that your baby has not woken up, it's like winning the lottery.

A while ago some woman on Baby Center went on a rant about how she annoyed she is with all this "sleeping through the night" talk.

"Why is everyone so obsessed with their babies sleeping all night?" she asked us. "Didn't you know you were signing up for no sleep when you got pregnant?" And I say to her, and anyone else thinking something similar, we are obsessed with it because we are human and like to sleep.