LONG nights...

...OF SLEEP!
WOOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!

For whatever strange and unknown reason, Brooke has mysteriously taken a turn into the world of babies who SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I feel strangely rested as I sit here and type (before 8 am) and I'm anxiously waiting for her to wake up so I can celebrate her successful night of sleep with her! She always gets excited when we open her door in the morning with a rousing "Good Morning, Gorgeous!" I think this morning, I'll say, "Good Morning, BIG SLEEPER GIRL!" I don't get to say that very often...

I thought we were on to something with her sleep patterns after the weekend we had...let me explain...

She was still doing terribly at night as of last Thursday. Even taking walks in the beautiful weather wasn't tiring her out like I thought it would. So when Friday rolled around, we enjoyed an evening at Brandon and Amanda's house with the kids for supper! We skipped our normal 8 pm tub time and stretched her until after 9:30pm when we got home. She took a little nap with Amanda before we came home - so once we finally got back, she had a tub, a bottle, and rocked away with Daddy...normal routine, just 2 hours later. This was the first night she slept all night! I woke up in a panic at 2am because I hadn't heard from her! I raced to her room to find her fast asleep with her arms above her head - totally relaxed. Cool!

Then, Saturday night, after one of the most beautiful days we've had in a long time, Zig and I decided to call some friends over for our first patio party of the season! Big John, Sara, Stephen "Big Worm", Brandon, Amanda, Halle and Max all joined our family of 3 outside for most of the evening! We loved the company and the conversation! Most of our entertainment came from Halle - she ran around the patio telling stories and making everyone giggle - especially Brooke! Again on this night, we skipped the 8pm tub time and it was close to 9:30 until we started the night time routine. Although it was past 10:30 until we laid her down, she again, slept all night.
We were starting to think we had it all figured out.
Hmmm...

Yesterday, since Brooke had been up at 7am for the day, she was a little ahead of schedule, and we worried that we wouldn't be able to stretch bed time so late, so we went ahead with the normal 8pm routine, had her asleep in her crib by 9pm and she is still sleeping right now (8:05am)! Hooray! Success! Fabulous! Awesome! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

I remember my sister posting every now and again about how Josh would miraculously sleep through the night and how she didn't want to 'claim victory' quite yet - and nor do I.
Brooke's problems almost definitely came from those 2 adorable teeth she has, and I know that she still has a million more to come! (And please note: Even with our latest success, Brooke has still only slept through the night a grand total of 6 times since she was 3 months old.)

My friend Leah said it best yesterday (about her 9 month old that is going through the same thing)... "It's a shame that all of this hard work and sleep deprivation FALLS OUT in a few years!" Ha... Not funny!

So...I sit...drink my coffee (Yep - I've taken up coffee!!) and wait for my gorgeous to awake!
I can't wait to see what kind of trouble we get into together today!
I love her!

Pictures to comes soon!
Happy rainy day, everyone!