Breath of Fresh Air

Seriously. Do you know what a breath of fresh air it is to put down my Littlest? When I compare getting him to sleep to getting the Oldest to sleep when he was that little, it's literally like night and day. He tells us it's time for bed--'night nigh' he says. I read him a book, we snuggle, I rock him for about one minute, let him take sips of his milk from his sippy, tell him I love him, sleep good, night night and I put him in his crib, he rolls over and that is that. He gets himself to sleep and he's fine when I walk out of the room and close the door. Can I tell you I WOULD NEVER EVER have closed the Oldest's door when he was that little? NEVER. Oh the thought was (and yes all the drama here) horrendous to me. I thought it was horrible to close the door on a little one. But hello there are such things as monitors and the closed door gives them a peaceful sleep with no extraneous noises and a nice dark room....maybe that was the problem back then. Well, that and the fact that I was a new mom, who never wanted to hear an utterance of a cry from the little bambino. BUT those of you who know me even a little know that my tolerance for crying now is way way less than it ever was then so that can't be it. I don't know. All I know is, for whatever reason, our sweet little one knows when it's time to go to sleep and I can't tell you how wonderful it is to not have that stress, that crying, that battle, every night. Do you know I used to rock and rock and rock the Oldest to try to get him to fall asleep every night and it hardly ever worked but I kept trying. And then I'd have to lay physically beside his crib and hold his little hand through the bars till he literally passed out and I'd be crying silently beside his crib. We both were crying!

It's like a breath of fresh air. It's wonderful. For both of us. And my husband will say, "is he ASLEEP? That was quick" or "wow, he's asleep already?" to which I just smile. Yep. He's a good boy. Full of energy all day long and then when it's time for sleep, done deal. He's not a sleepy head baby or anything. I just think he knows when he's had his limit, hit the wall, you know, done for the day. Love that. Give me more breaths of fresh air I say. Bring them on.

-J