mr. elijah, 363 day-old baby, has finally slept through the night. i put him to bed at 6:30 pm and he woke up at 4:54 am! during the night he was awake for awhile and talking to himself, but he went back to sleep. our boy learned to go back to sleep on his own.

only 3 times in his entire life has he slept more than two or three hours in a row. one day in august when he was two and a half months old, he slept for seven hours straight. we kept him up most of the night before, because we had to pack for a trip and catch an early morning flight. then there were two days in march when he was nine and a half months old when he slept five hours and four hours in a row. otherwise, he was up every two or three hours every single night.

last night, i was really tired so i went to bed early at 10 pm. i woke myself up in a panic at 2:44 am. i couldn’t believe the time i thought i must have slept through elijah crying. i went to the living room, where paul was awake working on a project. he told me that elijah was still sleeping quietly, more than 8 hours since he went to bed. we decided to go check on elijah just to make sure he was still alive.

he was sound asleep. it looked like he had rolled over to change his sleeping position, but he kept sleeping. we snuck out of the room happily. my right breast was swollen like the planet earth from not feeding for this long. it started to shoot milk a little; i think it was crying milky tears.

i felt so much better sleeping five hours straight for the first time in a long time and was so excited that he’s sleeping that i couldn’t go back to sleep for awhile. can anyone rock me to sleep?

i heard him talking (not crying) at 4:54 am. he was looking for my breasts so i nursed him. i put him down even though he was awake. i left the room, but i didn’t hear a thing after that.

he woke up at 6:30 am for his breakfast. he was chanting ‘manma! manma! (food)”. he looked very happy that i was happy.