A Full Night's Sleep

If you've seen me at all this past week, you might have noticed a new spring in my step. Or maybe a nice healthy glow. (We should probably establish right off the bat that it is NOT pregnancy glow!) Instead, it is that elusive, treasured glow of an uninterrupted night of sleep. Yes folks, it's true: Lilly is sleeping through the night. (Cue wild applause, ticker-tape parade, and fireworks. And while we are at it, throw in some F-16 fly-bys like they do for the Superbowl.)

I was willing to let Lilly's 4AM snacking slide for a while. Generally, it was quick and easy and she was back to sleep within 15 minutes. After a while though, I began to worry that instead of being a phase she would eventually outgrow, it was developing into a solidified habit. I harbored the fear that I would still be making the same 4AM, bleary-eyed, stumble into her bedroom when she was 2. I knew eventually we were going to have a nasty little battle on our hands.

Lilly turned one and showed no signs of willingness to give up her nighttime snack. Admittedly, Andy and I were not eager to push the issue. We were both ready to sleep through the night but neither of us were looking forward to the screaming sessions we saw looming in our future. Lilly's crib is about 3 steps away from our bed, just on the other side of a painfully thin door. Coupled with the fact that her Miller genes have gifted her with a set of powerfully-loud lungs, we dreaded nighttime weaning. We put it off for her surgery. We put it off for Christmas. And then she got sick so we waited until she recovered and suddenly we were half-way through January. Oops. We realized that we had to quit stalling. The plan was simple: no more nighttime snacks for Lilly as of the upcoming weekend. Period. That gave us a few days to mentally psych ourselves up for the impending battle of wills. Or at least that was the strategy.

I swear Lilly must have been eavesdropping and decided to make us look like fools because that night she outwitted us. She slept through the night. And she did the same the next night. And the next. (We are currently on night 10.) 7:15PM ~ 7:00 AM without one peep. Beautiful. I am so ecstatic about a full night's sleep that I won't even blubber on about my baby girl growing up. (This time anyway.) There are probably a whole bunch of profound parenting lessons to be learned here, but honestly, I'm just going to stick with my favorite: Sleep is sweet.