The big move

We did it yesterday- we moved Cooper into his own room. His new room, the downstairs bedroom, is a good (although not perfect) spot for him. Lots of natural light, nice closet, plenty of space for our futon, his crib, his changing table/dresser combo, his laundry, and other baby items.

We waited until now to do this for a few reasons. One is that I liked having him in our room. It was easy, simple, space efficient in our little house, and made nursing him at odd hours pretty painless. The other reason we waited until now is that I had one very important criteria for when Cooper would be moved out of our room- and that criteria was that he had to first be consistently sleeping all night. Adult standard all night, not this "5 hours is sleeping through the night" b.s. that the baby books claim.

And sure enough, as a result of a combo of dumb luck, Cooper's nice temperament, and a lot of hard work on Matt and my part, Cooper now can be trusted to sleep from 8pm until 5:30am. Sometimes he's even better- like the time he slept from 7:30pm to 7:15am, very much surprising Matt and me. That was glorious. But this new pattern, which is roughly 7:45 to 5:45 with variation at either end depending on various factors, has met the criteria for consistently sleeping all night. He's been doing it for about 3 weeks, so we are pretty sure he's got it down pat.

Last night was his first night in the new room. We followed all his usual routines and he was asleep snuggled under his favorite blanket by 8pm. He woke up at 6:30am daylight savings time, which I know was really 5:30am, but I don't care. It was great.

Of course, last night I was all worried about him all alone down there. What if he got cold? Miserable? Lonely? Yes, I admit this was a bit irrational. But I woke up repeatedly during the night, worried about him, and only fell back asleep after listening to the quiet whirring of his monitor. It was inches from my head- very reassuring.

Now he's asleep in his very own room again, napping. What a good little guy. I think he's taking this change more in stride then I am.

Last night Matt asked, "Are you going to get this worried when he has his first sleepover, too?" I think it was a rhetorical question.