Transition, By The Numbers

We had a big, big event 'round these parts this weekend. Baby Girl's transition from sleeping in the bedroom with Mama and Daddy, to sleeping in her own room. Don't even get me started on how quickly time has flown for this to have happened, or I'll melt into a weeping pile of hormonal goo.

Now, I know the subject of where and how an infant sleeps is a pretty controversial one, so I'm in no way advocating a time frame, a game plan, a bumper/ no-bumper stance, a thermostat setting, a pajama length, a pacifier/ no pacifier point-of-view (can you sense that this list can go on-and-on?), a swaddle technique, a sound machine/ no sound machine decision, a nightlight brand...okay, I'll spare you from the rest and just tell you how it went down in our casa. But I'll do it by the numbers.

• 7:   Days I'd planned to keep her in our room
• 34: Days the little stinker got
• 12: Minutes she fed before she went down for the first night in her big girl crib
• 15: Minutes she stayed awake in there before she finally caved and slept
• 4:   Hours she was out before waking to feed again
• 3:   Hours she made it before yet another feeding
• 2:   Happy parents in the morning when she was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed

Now, before you go thinking that this transition was all sunshine and rainbows, here's Night #2:

• 5:   Minutes the little stinker fed before falling dead asleep (i.e. not freaking long enough)
• 2:   Hours she made it before waking (and that's rounding up)
• 25: Minutes to fed, change and burp her before re-cribbing
• 10: Minutes she cried theatrically before we went back in to soothe her and return her paci
• 30: Seconds before she spit back out the paci and started up again
• 5:   Minutes of watching her wail on the monitor as hubby and I discussed a game plan
• 2:   Agonized parents as we watched, having decided to let her go 20 minutes this time
• 19: Minutes before she caved and stopped crying. (Victory!)
• 2:   Hours before the turd woke up again
• 3:   Times this process repeated itself (without the 19-minute crying jag. Progress, right?)

So after Night #2, I was pretty beat down. But I was just so grateful that Night #1 had gone well, or I would've been suckered into thinking the drama was all because of the crib, and I'm so glad I didn't think that, because guess what happened on Night #3???

SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!

Or at least six hours straight, which in my book qualifies. Especially when it's followed by another three hours. Miracle of all miracles.

I'm under no delusions that this six-hour stretch will be the norm from here on out, but I do think that the forced cry-out on Night #2 kept Night #3 from being a disaster. 

Either way, I'll keep you posted.