Typical night

Here is what our typical night has looked like the last couple of months:

• 8pm - lay Mitchell down to sleep in his pack n' play in our room
• 10pm - If he's home from work yet, I hang out with Jacob for a few hours before I lie down for bed
• 11pm - hear Mitchell cry, feed & change him (1 hour of sleep for Mandi)
• 11:30pm - lay Mitchell back down to sleep
• 1ish pm - hear Mitchell cry, wake Jacob up to ask him to move over to his side of the bed b/c he's crept so far over to my side that I don't have room to sit down and feed Mitchell, feed & change Mitchell (1 1/2 hours of sleep for Mandi)
• 1:30pm - try to lay Mitchell back down to sleep, if not successful on the first try, try, try again; usually soundly sleeping again by 2:30ish (1 1/2 hours of sleep for Mandi)
• 4am - hear Mitchell cry, feed & change
• 4:30am - lay Mitchell back down to sleep (1 1/2 hours of sleep for Mandi)
• 5am - hear Mitchell cry, take him to the living room to rock him and try to get him back to sleep without feeding since he just ate an hour ago, usually both of us fall asleep in the rocking chair before I wake up and lay him down in our room again, usually 5:30am (1/2 hour of sleep for Mandi)
• 6:15ish am - hear Mitchell cry, feed & change (45 minutes of sleep for Mandi)
• The daytime schedule begins!

Not to mention that Mitchell also wakes up anytime Jacob's alarm goes off. Jacob has to keep his alarm on high volume b/c he's a heavy sleeper (proven by the fact that he sleeps soundly through all of the above activity!). So, I moved the alarm to my side of the bed, set it on low volume so that Mitchell won't be stirred when it goes off, and then I wake Jacob up. So, in the rare instance that Mitchell is still sleeping before Jacob's alarm goes off, I still don't get to sleep b/c I have to get up to wake Jacob up. To make matters worse, Jacob likes two snoozes before he gets up for good, so I have to wake him up THREE times in a row. Fun, Fun!
On Saturday night, Jacob and I decided to try moving Mitchell into his nursery for the first time. We started the night like any other:

• 8pm - lay Mitchell down to sleep in CRIB
• 10pm - I decided to wake Mitchell up this time to feed him before I lay down for bed
• 2:45am - I wake startled because I have not yet heard Mitchell cry. I look at our baby monitor and convince myself that it must be broken. I head up to Mitchell's bedroom and stare at him for a few minutes to make sure I can see his chest rising and falling. Whew...he's still breathing. I lay down on the futon in his room and wait for feeding time. (4 HOURS and 45 MINUTES of UNINTERUPTED SLEEP for Mandi)
• 3:30am - Mitchell finally wakes, feed & change
• 3:50am - Mitchell sound asleep in his crib again. I'm still quite ready to leave him again, so I lay back down on the futon anticipating the normal 5:30am waking.
• 6:30am - much to my surprise, Mitchell does not stir again until 6:30! Feed, change and up for the day! (2 1/2 MORE hours of UNINTERUPTED sleep for Mandi )

Another added advantage is that we moved the alarm clock back over to Jacob's side of the bed now that Mitchell is far enough away not to be disturbed by the loud volume. So no more waking up to wake Jacob up :)
Mitchell has done his new schedule for TWO nights in a row now and last night I even slept in my bed the whole night :) I'm not even sure to do with myself now that I'm getting what I consider a full night's sleep! I heard that it takes doing something three times before it becomes a habit, so keep your fingers crossed that tonight is another good night!!!