Tales of the crib

This is the two month journey to E sleeping in his own crib. E slept by my side all the way until his four month mark. We started him off in a rocker that had an incline to it because of his reflux, then at three months I got a wild hair (primarily due to peer pressure) and decided to try him in his crib. EPIC FAIL. That lasted approximately one hour, not even one day. And I was so optimistic about it in the beginning. Now mind you, E was not used to such an open space and he also wasn't used to lying flat. The rocker was very compact and held him in tight. Plan B: start putting him in the pack and play in our room. That way we don't have to run to his room on the other side of the house every five minutes for consoling purposes, instead we can just reach off the side of our bed. Finally after a month in the pack and play I decided it was time for round two of operation baby bed. To be honest, I was in no hurry what so ever to get E out of our room. I honestly wouldn't have minded him staying in there for a year. But I think Chris and I were waking him up with our teeth grinding, snoring, tossing and turning. After reading every possible book under the sun about sleep training, let me sum them all up- you must find the trigger for your baby waking. This was my attempt at that. So here was my plan, I was going to blow up the air mattress and sleep in E's floor. Yep, that was it. The grand plan. Night one, E woke up a couple of times and I replaced the paci and he was fine. He woke up around 3:00 to eat, but the night went better than when he was in our room. One night my mom decided to stay the night to help me try to figure out why E was still waking up so much in the middle of the night. Guess where I made her sleep....air mattress in his room floor. And yes she thought I was crazy. Of course E only woke up once for her. Don't kids always act better with the grandparents? The next night I was back on the air mattress. Every time I turned I cringed because that air mattress was so loud. There was a point when my body ached from laying in the same position for so long, because I didn't want E to wake up. Then it dawned on me, Brandi why don't you tote that air mattress to the "man" room and sleep in there. So ten feet away I went. Stationed with my monitors surrounding me. I have two monitors, one a video and sound and the other a motion monitor. I got the motion one after I started putting E in his crib, because I was/am super paranoid about SIDS. After a couple of nights of that it was time to return back to my nest. My baby was going to be okay on his own. This moment was extremely bittersweet. This nailed down the fact that he was no longer my little newborn, he was my growing baby.

In honor of me becoming a "big" girl my amazing work friends threw me a BIG girl party with brownies and ice cream. I am so fortunate to work with such amazing/supportive/crazy/fun people.

This is our night time station set up

Operation Eagle Eye

On an exciting side note, somebody whose name starts with an E rolled from back to belly. Another stark reminder that my little boy is growing up WAY too fast. Moments like these are treasured forever.