Mommy's baby withdraw

It's been a long and busy weekend for our family. Friday night we didn't do a whole lot but I figured we might give Arabella's crib a try. I was very hesitant to leave her in her room all night. I had been trying to get her to take more naps in her room during the day. I asked Adam what he thought about putting her in there all night. He agreed we could try it over the weekend and see what happens. Friday night she stayed up a little later than usual, but was out by midnight. We plugged in the nightlight and move the oil filled heater in her room. She's directly over the garage so its a little colder in there. We tucked her in, said our good nights and left the room. Adam and I spent some quality time together catching up on the DVR. I think we had nearly one hundred shows recorded. Somewhere around three am we ended up in bed. I had my ear tuned to the monitor just listening to my baby girl breathing. I laid in bed, wide awake, second guessing myself and the thought of her being all alone in another room of the house. I was scared, but I don't know why. The last time I saw the clock it was around four am, and finally I saw the back of my eyelids. We all slept so well, it was amazing. She didn't start rooting around until ten am. Of course by then I thought my chest was going to explode. Within two hours of waking up she was back down for a nap. I must say her nap routine was more consistent in her crib. I survived the evening and when Adam brought her to me in the morning you would have thought we would have been separated from each other for a week.

Saturday night didn't go quite as well as we had hoped. She was up and down several times but managed to crash around one in the morning. Adam and I went to bed shortly after she did. I don't even remember laying my head on the pillow. Around seven am I woke up to roll over and you would have thought someone had stuck rocks in my nightgown. Man was I in pain. I poked Adam and told he had to go get the baby for me. I didn't care if she was still sleeping or not. We went through the entire day taking naps in the crib without much of a fight. That evening we had to take her to get her three month pictures taken. That went very well considering the amount of time we had to wait. Our appointment was at 5:40 but by the time they got to us it was nearly seven o'clock. Once we got through the pictures we left to get something to eat while they were printing. Twenty minutes later we stopped back by to get the pictures and it was nearly nine o'clock. We then had to go to Katie's to get Gaige. I promised him we'd stay up all night and watch movies. We started the first disc in the Dinosaur (tv series) set. He made it half way through the second episode and was passed out. So much for an all nighter!

Sunday was Gaige's 8th birthday party at my parents house. Prior to the party we stopped by Grandmama's house to give her the pictures we had taken. We stayed around for a while before we had to leave for the party. We arrived at my parents and had a lot of fun with the kids. Gaige had the most interesting menu picked out for his party. We had chicken nuggets, french fries, mac-n-cheese, green beans, Ramen noodles, and pancakes. For dessert we had rice crispie treats and chocolate chip cookies. Instead of a birthday cake he opted for a couple of cherry pies. We played Rock Band, pin the tail on the donkey and opened up presents. He had a blast I must say. Bella on the other hand took a nap and then was difficult to nurse with all of the shrieks coming from the living room. Prior to leaving I gave the kids hugs and kisses as usual but Brooklyn started mumbling and pouting. Finally I got her to speak up where we could hear her. She was saying "I want to go with you Bobo." Earlier in the evening while I was changing Bella I recalled she had said she wanted to stay the night with Bella. So as I was rushing out the door I had to figure out what we were going to do. Adam had already started the car and had Bella in there because it was cold. I ran out to let him know we were trying to round up some clothes and the booster seat for Brooklyn. He was a little irritated because Bella was sitting in the back seat screaming her head off. We got on the road, I put my finger in her mouth and a few seconds later she had passed out. I told Adam that as soon as we get home he was to get in the shower and go to bed. Bella was pretty easy to manage and was asleep by eleven o'clock. Brooklyn and I stayed up until midnight. I put her to bed and then hit the shower. After that I made sure Adam had food for lunch, emptied the dish washer, reloaded the dishwasher, and hand washed all of Bella's bottles. I made it to bed around one am. I got to sleep until almost seven am when Bella decided she was hungry.

So the lesson I learned this weekend is that I can sleep without my baby in the same room with me and I really think that our quality of sleep is a lot better. Yes I'm still having doubts in my head about the move to the crib, but we survived the weekend so I don't think we'll go back to having her in our room. Of course if she moves back to our room then so be it. I guess the next step in the twelve step program would be weaning mommy off the monitor, but we are far from that.

I might also mention that tomorrow is my birthday and Adam couldn't wait to give me my gift so I got it tonight! Yay me. Another year older, but another year wiser.