Sweet Glorious Sleep

I haven't talked about sleep in a long while. I stopped talking about it because it was awful and I was frankly tired of repeating the same story every time someone asked. Every night was the same and none of us were getting good restful sleep. We put Finn down and on occasion we would get 2 hours before his first wake up, but often he would wake up every half hour until we go to bed and then end up co-sleeping. We were okay with this for awhile because while we didn't get a lot of sleep co-sleeping, it was still better than not. Well, in the past month even co-sleeping hasn't been cutting it. Finn would still wake up often and it was getting harder and harder to soothe him back down. When we were at the apartment, I could go to the living room and cuddle him on the couch or just let him play until he got tired again, but when we moved to the new house, we had nowhere to go in the middle of the night since the place was carpeted in boxes. This left us struggling with a lot of sleepless nights. Now, there is seriously a reason that sleep deprivation is a torture technique. It is terrible and affects everything. Sean and I were in such terrible moods. Well, I have been working very hard on getting Finn into a more regular routine here at the house and always putting him in his crib for naps. Then, after months of Finn refusing to be comforted by Sean in the middle of the night, he suddenly decided that Dad is just fine for a good cuddle. So, two nights ago, Sean and I decided to try to keep Finn in his crib through the entire night. I was leery of this, expecting to not get any sleep. I like to go to bed earlier than Sean, so he took the bedtime to midnight shift and then I took it after. We discovered the first night that Finn needs a light on. When Sean went to turn off the light in the kitchen which gives light into Finn's room, he woke up more often, but when we left the light on, he tended to sleep longer. That first night, Finn woke up just two times during Sean's shift and went back down pretty quickly. Then, he woke up at 1am, it took me one hour to get him back into his crib, but then he slept til 5am! Then, last night, he had a hard time getting to sleep, but after that he only woke up twice during Sean's shift (11pm and 11:30pm) going back down quite quickly. Then, he slept until 3am! I went to bed at 10 and so I got 5 blissful hours of uninterrupted sleep. It has literally been 9 months since I have gotten that much sleep in a row! And, I was able to get Finn back to sleep in a 1/2 hour and he slept until 5:30am! I had a hard time going back to sleep after I got him down, but I would say I got another 1 hr and a 1/2 in! I feel magnificent. I have been floating on a cloud all morning. You don't realize how much you are affected by disrupted sleep until you get a good rest. I am ecstatic. I realize two nights does not constitute a pattern, but I do pray we are on a good course and things only get better from here.