So Close...But So Far

At Jack's 2 month doctor appointment last week, he weighed in at a whopping 12lbs. Eventually, we knew we would have to put him to sleep in his crib in his nursery as opposed to the bassinet next to our bed (which only has a 15lb maximum weight limit). Then, the other night, Kyle said, "Why don't we try the crib out tonight?". I hesitated. I thought to myself that it was too soon...he wasn't ready for it yet. Who was I kidding? I was just worried about myself. I knew I would miss him. I knew I would be feeling a terrible void without him next to me, no longer being only an arms' length away. Then I thought to myself, what would Jillian Michaels do?

That night we did as we normally do around 11:00 pm, which is get a nice clean diaper on Jack, swaddle him up good and tight, and then give him his last feeding for the day, except this night I fed him while rocking in the glider in his nursery. Once he was finished with his last meal, we turned on the little light show above his bed and played some sweet lullabies. I hummed along with the music and lowered him into his giant crib. I continued to hum while staring at his perfect little face. I hovered over him wondering what his little baby brain could possibly be thinking about at this moment. It was time for the adults to go to bed themselves, so we backed away from the crib. I was stuck in the middle of his room between the door and Jack. I had no idea that I would be feeling this sad about leaving him. Before having a baby, I would mock the parents who had such a tight grip on their kids, not having the will to let them go...but now, here I was do the same thing. You never know exactly how you will react and treat a situation until you are there, living it. Kyle helped rationalize things, reminding me that Jack's little move had to happen, we can hear him through the monitor, he's still under the same roof as us, and all will be f-i-n-e. He was right. I loosened my grip and was able to exit the room. It took me a while to fall asleep, but as soon as it felt like I finally drifted off, Jack's noises woke me up. It was 5:00 am. I did the math...6 hours straight! As groggy as I was, I was still happy to see my little guy. I scooped him up into my arms and fed him. 15 minutes later he was done with his mid-night snack and was ready to fall back asleep [me too]. The little guy went right back to his baby dream land, giving me no problems whatsoever until 8:30am when he woke up again. How lucky are we?

The motto in our house over the past few months seems to be the same as Winn Dixie's..."getting better all the time". The same was said with his sleep. Night #2 for attempting the bassinet to crib move was a success. He went down easy, slept from midnight to 7:30 am, and woke up smiling. I think we all did a great job with working through this little milestone here.

At least I didn't bust out the sleeping bag in Jack's room...