Wonder of Wonders, Miracle of Miracles

I wanted to share with you a series of baby-sleep praises that are nothing short of miraculous!

1) Yesterday, to my great surprise, when we put Blake down for a nap at 5pm he went to sleep with NO crying! Only slept 20-25 minutes, but that is okay. (I don't typically like to put him down so close to bed time, but when he wakes up at 3:30pm he won't typically last until his 7/7:30m bedtime, so we have been putting him down for a brief nap around 5pm.) This (no crying) happens for his naps every once in a while, so it isn't completely earth-shattering news, but it is still a blessing every time.

(Cute pic, just to break up my less-interesting ramblings:)

2) And then, to my even GREATER surprise (and borderline "earth-shattering"), when we put him to sleep at 7pm after a bath, some reading time, and nursing, he AGAIN went to sleep with no crying! We heard a few grunts through the monitor, but after about 20 minutes he was asleep! This has NEVER happened - the past few nights, actually, we have been dealing with what seems to be rather painful reflux and in some cases hours of crying, and we were preparing ourselves for that again.

(Another cute pic, just 'cause:)

3) Then last night/this morning I woke up on my own (not due to a crying baby). It was still dark out, but I was remarkably refreshed. I looked at the clock - 5:15AM! Blake had SKIPPED his typical 3-4am feeding, and I had a whole 6.25 hrs of uninterrupted sleep! This is only the second time this has happened in the past 3 months (I would venture to say longer, since a baby on my bladder didn't make it possible to sleep very long that last month of prenancy, too.)

Shortly after I woke up I started to hear little grunts, but I think he was just passing gas (heard that, too!). But since I was up, and he was up, I decided to nurse him instead of pushing it and hoping he would go back to sleep until 6:30am. I was hoping he might sleep even longer if I went ahead and nursed him. When I went in to get him the little boy had his eyes open and was making little fishy-lip motions, opening and closing his mouth in textbook baby-speak for "I'm hungry!" Very cute. And sure enough, after he ate he slept until 7:45am!

So I am trying to figure out what happened...

• We did more of a bedtime routine (bath, reading, nursing, setting down), and started this a little earlier (6:30pm, and put him down by shortly after 7pm)
• I re-introduced dairy into my diet, and yesterday when he was screaming so badly I was concerned that perhaps dairy was the problem. But yesterday I also had some red sauce (lasagna) and perhaps the acidity of the red sauce is what was bothering him so much the night before. I don't think dairy has been the issue.
• He is on a new med - generic of Pepcid. Because of the big screaming match yesterday I didn't have high hopes that it was helping, but perhaps it is!
• Mike gave him a bottle around noon while I was out, and we added a good amount of rice cereal to pumped milk. He puked a TON at his next feeding (but very happy the whole time). Perhaps having the rice cereal in his tummy helped calm things down later in the day? (Can you tell I am grasping?)
• God's grace, ultimately! Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God is very generous! We prayed for a healthy, happy baby, and that is what we have had for the last 24 hours!

 Disclaimer: I don't in any way EXPECT that he will keep this up or even do it again any time soon. But I sure will pray, and I am grateful for today!