To My Wonderful Husband and My Precious Son

Dear Jeff & Reid:

I'm writing to you this morning to express my sincere gratitude for the events of last night.  I woke up at 4:50am with success on my mind and a big smile on my face.  I thought to myself, "this is how it's supposed to work!"  Of course, I've quickly learned that there's no "supposed to" when it comes to babies. They are all each unique and beautiful in their own way.

Last night around 9:30pm, we began our bedtime routine (I know, mommy needs to start this earlier in the evening but it's so hard to do because we want to maximize our time with daddy when he gets home from work in the evenings).  After feeding you your evening snack, I took you to the nursery to get settled in.  First, I swaddled you nice and tight because at seven weeks old, you still enjoy a snug swaddle.   The Miracle Blanket was clean, so we got to use mommy's favorite swaddle blanket.  After getting you nice & snug, we settled into the rocker for some bonding time.  You ate a little more, burped a little, grunted a bit in the cute way that only you can do, sucked on the pacifier a little (we tried a new one tonight - the one your daddy gave me with my Mother's Day present - it says "Mute Button" on it).  It took you a minute to decide whether or not you liked it, but eventually you accepted it as your own.  I knew you would since it was a gift from your dad.  By about 10:30pm, you were in a pretty deep sleep so I laid you in your crib for the night.  After turning on the humidifier & your sleep sheep (I think I chose the ocean sounds - mommy loves the ocean and I'm sure you will one day too), I left you in your slumber and headed to bed for the night (or at least for a few hours, I hoped).

I put the video monitor on dad's side of the bed since he so graciously agreed to give you your midnight bottle.  To my surprise you slept well past midnight!  In fact, you slept for three solid hours.  Around 1:30am I awoke to hear you stirring.  I was only awake for a few seconds when dad jumped out of bed and headed to your room to begin the routine of diaper change, bottle feed, burp, and sleep.  I haven't talked to dad yet this morning, so I'm not sure how smoothly that went, but I have a feeling it was a piece of cake because you proceeded to sleep for almost another three hours!  Dad must have done an excellent job!  I slept soundly until I heard you moving around again at 4:50am.    

Those six hours of sleep were wonderful.  Today is going to be a great day!  We'll be on our "A" game little buddy!

I wanted to be sure to write this letter to you so that I'll have something to refer to during those not-so-successful sleep nights. I know we'll have them again (kind of like the night before last...you were up just about every hour sweet child!), and we'll survive even the longest night of no sleep because all I have to do is take one look at you and I'm reminded that God gave your daddy and me the single greatest gift there is in life - a healthy son who is amazing and wonderful in so many ways!  We are so blessed!

So again, I offer my sincere gratitude and thanks to both of you.  You continue to make me the "happiest mommy on the block" (you guys must have read the book!).

Love,

mommy

This was you last night as we began our bedtime routine