Alaina's First Night in her Crib

Last night was Alaina's first night in her crib! I'm sure this post will be completely boring, but I want to record her "firsts." :) She has been taking great naps in her crib, but she just will NOT sleep in the pack n play. She has never slept in there for any length of time. So, she has still been in the swing at night. I haven't worried about forming bad habits until recently. Now that she's a month old (5 weeks yesterday to be exact!), I just think the time has come to switch her to a "real bed." I really hate to do it because she sleeps SO great in the swing. The other night she went from 11-5:30! It was super nice to get that much sleep! But, I know the time has come to make the change. Since she doesn't sleep in the pack n play, and she DOES sleep in her bed, we decided to just go straight to her crib. However, that means she's sleeping upstairs. I really would like to have her in our room longer, but it just doesn't seem like that's an option.

So, last night I got brave and put her in her bed! I even fed and put her down earlier than I have been. I put her in bed around 9:45, and it was so nice to have a little bit of time in the evening with all three kids asleep in their beds :) I really had no clue how to expect the night to go. I was very pleasantly surprised when Alaina slept in her bed until 3AM. I had gone to sleep around midnight, so I had only been asleep for 3 hours, but I thought Alaina had done great! I went upstairs and fed her, and it took a while to get her back to sleep. Since I had to go upstairs to get her when she woke up, she had gotten more fully awake than she did when she was in our room. She finally went back to sleep, and I went back to bed about 3:45. I had just dozed off around 4, and she was awake again at 4:15. Bummer. David went upstairs and tried to give her her pacifier, and she got quiet again. Until 4:30. Ugh. We just brought her downstairs at that point, and I fed her again to get her to sleep. I put her in the swing, but she couldn't get settled even in there. I kept having to get up and give her the pacifier or pick her up to get her back to sleep. This went on until almost 5AM. I was so tired from only 3 hours of sleep and being up for 2 hours. I was also stressed because I knew the clock was ticking toward Aubrey and Jude's wake up time (usually around 7).

David finally offered to take Alaina out of our room so that I could get some sleep, but just as he was about to pick her up, she got quiet and slept until after Aubrey was awake. The end. Ha! ;)

So the first half of the night was a definite success. The second half.... not so much! I'm so dramatic in the middle of the night. I think I said something to the effect of, "I'm never putting her in that crib again!!" Haha -- Drama Queen! I guess we will try again tonight and see what happens. What else can you do? This is just all part of having a newborn, and I realize that.... in the light of day when I'm a bit more rational ;)

On the bright side, Alaina has been smiling at me this morning! Melt. my. heart! It totally makes up for those two hours she kept me up last night! Love that sweet baby!