Cooper and Sleep

A years worth of sleeping pictures and not one of me and Cooper sleeping together!  But every night he was in my arms or his crib right next to my bed.  I so wish I could make this collage even bigger because some of these pictures are hilarious.  I may end up posting them individually on Facebook.

We moved!  If you read one of my recent posts, I mentioned that we would be moving and that Cooper was finally going to get his own room!  This was bitter sweet for me.  Mainly sweet.  Sad too, because my baby boy and I are attached at the hip.  I got very comfortable being able to peek on him while he slept and also had a love/dislike relationship with him sleeping in my bed for 1/2 the night.  I LOVE cuddling with him, but staying in the same position for hours on end is not comfortable!  I would strain in one position to keep him safe if he were sleeping with me.  Mmm, but the smell of his hair and breath and his sweet little sounds were priceless.  But this co sleeping thing needed to end.  It was very draining and I wanted us both to get better sleep at night and also at nap time for him.  To recap on that post, I mentioned that my other boys slept through the night much sooner.  Cooper had not slept through the night for the 13 months of his life and we were very convinced that it was because he was in our room.  It was also all too easy to just pull him in bed with me when he woke up throughout the night because I was sooo tired and he knew we were there; and crying it out was something I was trying to avoid and I don't think that would work when we were in the room anyway.  SO we moved.  Cooper baby has his own cute room now!  I love it!  I thought the transition was going to be a little rough, but it wasn't!  We were right, he needed his own room.  He needed to be in his own space that was smaller and mom and dad were not there!  Since we moved (a month ago) he has slept through the night almost every single night!  We have had a few nights that he was up with gas or teething, but for the most part he is sleeping SO much better!  Also, another improvement is that I can put him in bed while he is awake and say, "goodnight Cooper, I love you," and I shut the door and he puts himself to sleep.  I tried this so much at the other place and he would scream his head off.  Every once in a while he will refuse and I rock him for a bit and out comes a big burp.  He is so stubborn with his burps and he won't lay down until they are out. I don't mind rocking him every once in a while.  In fact, I cherish every second of it. He is growing up too fast and I can't get enough of him.  But for his sake I have to let him put himself to bed the majority of the time.  It's so much easier too, since I have 2 other kids to tend to.  He loves his room!  Around nap/bedtime when he starts to get sleepy, I say, "lets go nigh-night," and he waddles down the hall to his room, turns on his sound machine, gets his binki and kiki (blanket) and I put him in bed.  He seems so content and I just love that!  So in celebration to Cooper sleeping better, I made a collage of the first year of his life of all the sleeping pictures I had of him.  Actually, there were more, but I tried to limit myself to one per day for the collage, except for a few of those days that were hard to choose from.  Going through all of those pictures made me choke up.  I also found myself talking to my computer in the voice I talk to Cooper in.  He is in bed right now and man I miss him!  I have a hard time going through old pictures and videos sometimes because it reminds me how fast this amazing thing called motherhood is going by.  Anyway, I'm so proud of my little boy!!