Sleep Training? What Sleep Training?

He's a dream baby.  I don't know what else to say.  The first night of sleeping in his own room, in his own crib, I nursed him at 6:30pm then put him in the crib.  He cried for 10 minutes, and I went in and held him for a few minutes, then put him back down.  He cried for 15 minutes...and let me stop and explain "cried".  Because Caroline's "cry" was screaming until she scream/cried herself to sleep...well, for hours.  Cooper's "cry" is more of a fussing...he was not doing a full screaming type of cry.  His cry is just....well, more laid back.   It's like he has a cry to fit his personality....laid back cry for a laid back baby.  So he fussed for 15 more minutes, I went back in a 2nd time held him, and then put him down and that was it....he just fell asleep.  And then I was anxious and couldn't sleep all night and he did not wake up for 8 hours!!!  When he did, I nursed him and laid him back down and there was no fussing at all...he just rolled over and went back to sleep for another 3 hours.

The next day I put him in the crib for his nap and he literally just laid down and went to sleep.  What?!?!
It was amazing.

And so it's pretty much continued.  Not all naps have been as easy as the first, but as long as he is tired then he is pretty happy about going to sleep in the crib.  And night time has provided us with at least 8 straight hours of him sleeping, then a quick nursing session and then right back to sleep. 

I am just in awe.  And so thankful.  I am thankful for all my children, but boy, after dealing with Caroline being such a difficult sleeper for so long, it is a super duper blessing to have an easy baby who likes to sleep!

Coop turned 6 months yesterday, and I just can't believe it.  Each baby I have makes me want another baby.  That seems like such an odd thing to say, but I just can't imagine that Cooper would be our last, although I know all too well that my fertility is completely in the hands of my Creator.  And I will be happy with His plans for our family.

A 6 month hiatus.

Wow....I had a baby and never intended to drop off the face of the blog world, but that is certainly what happened!  Unfortunately, I cannot completely blame it on the baby.  Because he is SUCH a GOOD BABY!  And the fact that he will be 6 months old this Sunday makes me want to cry.  All of our babies have started out their first 6 months of life co-sleeping with us.  And our bedroom just happens to be where my desktop resides.  And that desktop is my preferred medium for creating blog posts, so let's just say that for the last 6 months, once the baby goes to bed, the computer gets turned off and so blog posts have not been born.

But tonight, my friends....tonight is the very first night that I put Cooper down in a different room.  In His Own Crib.  He cried for about 30 minutes (during which I went in twice) and then after putting him back down the 2nd time, he just went to sleep.  And now he has been asleep for 2 hours.  So we will see how it goes.  Really I have no clue how it will go.  The old routine was:  nurse him to sleep in the bed, slowly inch my way off the bed like a ninja so he wouldn't wake up, and then go back in and nurse him if he did wake up. 

The last 6 months have gone by fast.  When I just had my first baby, the days were long, the nights were long, but these days with 4 kids....there is always something going on and barely a moment to think before the next diaper needs to be changed, dishwasher unloaded, garden tended, goats milked....you can fill in a number of daily activities.  So life is busy.  But it has made me realize that I need to slow down and reconnect myself with God.  Because I have just been going through life in this blur and not really growing in my spirituality, at least not in the way that I know needs to happen.  Perhaps more on that in another post....I mean, who knows how long I've got before the baby decides to wake up!  Besides that, I've got to tell you about the baby goat with the broken leg, my thyroid nodules and difficulty swallowing, snakes in the barn, 3 birthdays in April, making goat's milk mozzarella cheese for the first time, and the new kitten.

Anyway, I just wanted to say, "It's good to be back!" and hopefully I will update before Christmas ;)  In the meantime, here is an updated pic of my hooligans.  Clockwise from top:  Cooper, Isabel, Ian and Caroline.