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That's Oh, My Goodness!! for All my non-texting readers.

Just yesterday, a mom friend and I were discussing how the first question people always ask after learning that we have young kids is: Do they sleep through the night? At this age, sleeping through the night typically means 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep. The answer has always been, no.

So, a typical night for us has been, bedtime routine around 7pm. Wake SylRafa at 10pm to feed. Get up when one of them wakes (typically between 2 - 3 am) and feed, then wake them for the day at 6am. We discovered that if we don't wake them at 10pm, they would wake around midnight, then again around 3:30. Since we were then staying up past 10pm, it meant terrible sleep for us. We do have the night feedings down to about 35-45 minutes, but still. Both kids have been great about going back to sleep after the night feeds, even if we put them down awake. We have struggled with Sylvia after her first sleep cycle until the 10pm feed, though (lots of tears between 8 and 10, roughly, which is leaps and bounds better than between midnight and 4, which it used to be). But, we have counted our blessing that they are 4 hours between feeds at night, since they only go 3 hours during the day. And we haven't been too worried that they aren't sleeping through the night because they seem to be doing quite well for babies their age.

Last night, for whatever reason, when Sylvia woke at 7:45, like clockwork, I asked D if he wanted to do Ferber in earnest. (This is a method of teaching a child to self soothe, by reassuring them after gradually greater time periods, but not picking them up). We have been trying to let her self soothe a lot and toyed with the idea of Ferberizing, but often resort to picking her up once the wailing reaches a heartbreaking level and thereby probably undoing all the efforts at teaching her to self soothe, since she eventually gets picked up. D somewhat reluctantly agreed, waited the 3 minutes while pacing and staring at the clock, then went in to reassure her while she wailed. D valiantly left after a minute or two, even though it broke his heart as her wailing intensified to a level we haven't experienced, yet. I was on reassurance duty for the rest of the night. Poor, sweet D felt terrible for her. Somehow, I went into mission mode, I suppose. I withstood the desperate cries without racing in to scoop her up and save her from her lonely, sad existence. When, about a week ago we were preparing dinner during her outbreak and D was letting her cry a few minutes to see if she would fall asleep on her own and I couldn't bear the crying and sternly and desperately asked him, Will you PLEASE go get her!!!!?! And so, I returned after 5, then 10, then 10 minutes for brief reassuring moments. And that was it. Then she went to sleep, with just a few exhausted, sniffled whimpers.

D and I enjoyed dinner and a calm evening and went in to wake them for a feed at 10:30. D did ask before we went in to feed: Do you think she remembers? And he spent extra time caressing and cuddling with her after her 10:30 bottle. I noticed. Have I married the sweetest man or what?! I love how much he adores Sylvia and Rafael.

Anyway, we hit the sack before the ball dropped. And we slept. And they slept. And we slept. And they slept. And I awoke at 4:30!!! because I couldn't wait any longer to pump. And they slept. And it's now after 5 and they're still sleeping! Our total Ferber time was still less than the time we would typically spend with her if we picked her up, rocked and soothed, until she was ready to go back to sleep. I think I'm going back to bed to see if they last until 6!

One night does not a pattern make, but we might have stumbled into wonderful, new nights for 2012. Happy new year to us!! And to you, may your year be filled with blissful, new experiences nearly as wonderful as 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep is for us (since there can't possibly be anything more wonderful).

Happy New Year!!