sleep, baby, sleep

We've undergone a revolution: in the course of a week or two Sebastian had learned how to sleep. It's been a few weeks now, so I assume it's fair to breath that sigh of relief I didn't think would ever come. At first he would toss and turn in our bed when he joined us in the middle of the night, then he starting waking up every hour, half hour, tossing and turning. It was exhausting. Then, at bedtime he didn't need us anymore. He happily lay down in his crib and babbled or sometimes off-and-on cried to himself, but not for us, just out of tiredness. In fact it was better if we weren't in the room. We just put him down and he worked it out on his own. THEN an amazing (and kind of frightening thing happened). One three a.m I woke up with a start and realized the little dude hadn't woken up yet. I tiptoed to his room to make sure he was still alive and there he was, breathing peacefully, fast asleep. It was a strange night. I couldn't get back to sleep. I was so used to being up a few times a night, sleepily offering him milk, or sitting on his bedroom floor as he tossed and turned in his crib, looking up once and a while to make sure I was still there. I mentioned it to a friend of mine and she laughed and said, "Yah, what's even more amazing is when you sleep through the night for the first time."
The next night, he didn't wake up until five, had some milk, then went back to bed for a couple more hours. How far we've come... a month or two ago we were still rocking the thirty-pound brick to sleep while walking around because heaven forbid we should sit down. Then that didn't work anymore, and there was the screaming for an hour, reaching through the bars of his crib before a forty minute nap phase. That was fun. I guess looking back on the last couple months we've all been slowly adjusting to this change, Alex and I yearning for it but not expecting it anytime soon, and Sebastian slowly evolving.
I'm proud of all of us. I also think it's funny that we assumed Sebastian would co-sleep with us for years to come and that we were more or less okay with that, but that Sebastian decided he wanted his own bed. A part of me is a little sad to see that phase go, but a kid's gotta do... Alex and I didn't want to leave him to cry for hours to learn to sleep better, and we didn't. We sacrificed a lot and employed a great deal of patience for a gentle transition and Sebastian adjusted way quicker than we even imagined. I know a lot of parents would be shocked at a ten month old just learning to sleep on his own, and that some babies sleep through the night after their first few weeks. Well, good for them.