This week has been HUGE! Big ass deals happening over here at the Brookings. Let me give you some background first. Price has been in our bed for some time now. He went from his crib to his big boy bed after Parker was born and I'm not sure how long he was in there for but didn't seem very long. Maybe 5 or 6 months at the most. He transitioned really easily from crib to bed but for whatever reason, he ended up in our bed. My brain is obviously fried so I can't recall why and Kadin isn't here to ask:) Anyway, our routine has been something like this each night for the past 17 months, or since Parker was born:
Each night, I bring Parker out to the living room, feed her, put her in the Ergo carrier to fall asleep,, or lately, I'm able to just sing a couple songs to her and then put her down in her crib and she easily goes to sleep on her own. That is anywhere from 6:30-7:30. At that same time, Kadin takes Price into our room and reads books, lays down with him and has to wait until he falls asleep to come back out to see me. Usually he would make his appearance back into the living room by 8:00 each night. Just enough time for me to catch an episode, or close to a full episode, of either the Real Housewives of Miami, Parenthood or Kardashians. My on Demand crack. Then maybe we get a 1/2 hour or so together and then I head into bed and lay down to snuggle with Price before falling asleep. Kadin is not far behind. During the night I usually wake up to Parker crying out, first time about 10-11, I bring her back out to the living room, feed her real quick and put her down. Inconvenience for sure, but just enough time to catch up on Facebook, get a little snuggle and back to bed. Then I'd get a swift kick to the stomach by Price's foot, and then a whack in the head from his head. I'd try to fall back asleep reaching across the bed to touch Kadin's foot for some comfort. Then once I'm all comfortable, Parker cries out again around 2:30-3:30 in the morning, and I do the same routine. But that second wake up sucks. My alarm has been going off at 4:15 most mornings so really, there were many more days then not where I'd stay up after I put her down at 3:30. Why fall asleep to the alarm 45 minutes later?
So here we are to last Sunday morning. Almost a week ago. I woke up and said to Kadin, "this is it. Price is out of our bed and she is going to sleep through the night." no easing into this. I'm done. So Kadin moved things around, took his big boy bed out of his room, put it into Parker's room and now we have a sharing situation and a play room. Perfect. And our bed is back. At least that is the plan.
Well everyone, it's working, for the most part. I have had 4 nights in a row of NO GETTING UP TO BREAST FEED MY 17 MONTH YEAR OLD! She has been crying out and waking us up but she puts herself to sleep each time. Kadin isn't even having to go in there to soothe her. I know she would have been able to do this months ago but I think I wasn't ready to give up feeding her. As tired as I was, always tired, I enjoyed that time with her. I always will cherish that time. So the first Big ass deal is she is sleeping through the night. No more boob at night. Just before bed and when she wakes up.
Next big ass deal..... Now Kadin takes Price into his play room, reads him stories each night and then takes him into Parker's room to go to sleep. He falls asleep faster and is excited to sleep with his sissy to watch over her. He goes in her room quietly each night, careful to not wake her up and then Kadin is out. And we have options! We can either spend time together in the living room OR in our own bedroom, how bout that?? It's amazing!
The glitches are that often when Parker cries out at night, she wakes up Price and he isn't able to recover so Kadin goes in, gets him and brings him back to our bed. Not a problem for us now, but I'm sure we'll have to work on that too at some point. But for now we are just thrilled to have a couple hours to ourselves. It's Heaven. Hawaiian vacation really. Oasis.
Last night was pretty cute but pretty pathetic actually. Parker woke up, Price woke up and we laid in bed complaining, "why isn't she going back down?" It seemed like forever. Well, when I went out to the living room to find my phone to text my friend that I won't be making it to our 5am workout because I'm so tired, I found Price half way off our couch with his blanket and Pooh Bear, in is undies, legs freezing and Parker's door wide open! He was tired of her crying, he went out to the couch, he fell asleep. Parker meanwhile was having such a hard time because she didn't understand why her door was open and no one was coming for her. Anyway, 3:30am and I'm carrying Price into our room and shut the door for Parker. Everyone woke up at 6:00, everyone was happy.
In conclusion. 2 big ass deals. No more waking up to do feedings in the middle of the night and no more Price falling asleep in our bed. I'd say we have had a successful week!
