because Sammy fell asleep on his own tonight for the first time in his 16.5 months of life. Not in my arms. Not in his carseat. Not in his stroller. But in his crib, with lights out and door closed.
I have been giving Sean excuse after excuse for the past two months as to why he needed to let me no-cry sleep train Sammy gradually; but I never could suffer letting him fuss when I put him down sleepy-not-asleep, so my methods were nearly completely ineffective. Especially after letting him co-sleep with us when he got sick in Disney World, we took quite a few large steps backward in any progress we had made since early August when our co-sleeping ended. Since then, it would take me as long as an hour to rock him to sleep at night as well as him some nights waking every.single.hour until I zombie-like carried him into bed with us for the rest if the night (most nights were not this bad, but we knew we couldn't allow this with a new baby coming soon).
Tonight, Sean told me it was time. Mommy was not putting Sammy to bed. Sean read to him. Sung to him. Said goodnight. And closed the door. Screaming ensued. Oh yes, screaming ensued. For a good 20 minutes Sammy was crying and screaming harder than I've ever heard before, moving desperately from one side of the crib to the other. I fully expected this to last for a couple hours at least, and I'll admit that I was quite a mess in the other room, watching him on the baby monitor. But it only lasted for those 20 (terrible) minutes. He started standing in one corner off the crib for about 10 minutes. Then he lowered his little body and went to sleep. 30 minutes! That's all. We truly are grateful to our Heavenly Father who grants us even the blessing of a self-soothing toddler despite our neglect to even ask him for such a blessing.
(Sammy's head is in the center of the screen, peaking out over the crib railing.)
