just like daddy

It seems that something we were absolutely dreading actually wasn't as bad as we thought it'd be. All the books we'd read said it was important for a baby to learn how to fall sleep on their own, that way they'd be able to fall asleep in the middle of the night if they woke up, ultimately leading to a better and longer night's sleep.

Three nights ago we decided to take the plunge. We gave Evan his bedtime bottle, swaddle him up all cozy, placed him in his crib without his binky (ah!), kissed him good night and closed the door behind us. Then we took a very deep breath and went downstairs and listened to the monitor. We kept wondering, WHY ON EARTH is he not crying? 9 minutes later, we hear Evan whimpering and crying softly, but not constantly, just on and off. Kyle checked on him after 3 minutes, and Evan stopped crying right away. Wow. Kyle comes back downstairs, and we keep on listening. We're supposed to go back in again after 5 minutes of crying, but if Evan calms down on his own before 5 minutes, then we restart the clock again and wait another 5 minutes. We never had to go back in! Evan calmed himself down every time before the 5 minutes were up, and eventually, 33 minutes after we left the room the first time, Evan fell asleep all by himself. :) The first night is coined the "Black" night, because it's the hardest. Well that wasn't so bad.

The next night, we thought, it should get better, but who knows? We followed the same routine, bedtime bottle, swaddle, kiss goodnight, and closed the door. Evan fell asleep before we even left the room, and he slept for 11.5 hours!

Third night...we didn't want to believe it could be this easy. Actually we thought maybe last night was a fluke because Evan was so sleepy that he fell asleep while we were still in the room, that maybe he didn't really fall asleep 'on his own.' So tonight, we repeated his routine. He fell asleep while being being burped on my shoulder. But he woke back up while I was swaddling him, phew. I gave Evan a kiss and cuddle good night, so did Kyle, and we walked out of his nursery and closed the door behind us. Evan didn't whimper, he didn't cry, he just fell asleep. Evan learned to fall asleep on his own in 1 day. It took his parents 3 days to believe it! Evan is just like his Daddy, he falls asleep with amazing swiftness!