Life is Beautiful - First Laugh - First sleeping through the night

Last night, after Seth and I had some cuddle time, I sent him to go to sleep, and I fed John. Then he fell right to sleep in my arms. I could have put him in his bassinet and gone right to sleep - I was so sleepy, and my arms were tired and my neck hurt, but I didn't care - I didn't want to go to sleep. I wanted to savor that moment. I wanted to look at his peaceful face. I wanted to listen to him breathe and listen to the rain beating down on our roof. I wanted to enjoy our beautiful warm home. I wanted to contemplate how grateful I am for a loving, supportive, faithful, hard-working husband. How thankful I am for this living miracle in my arms. He has eyes that see, ears that hear, a heart that beats, and lungs that breathe. Every tiny part of him, from the hair on his head, to his fingers clasped around my thumb, to his wiggling toes is absolutely perfect. I felt my vision of the purpose of life broaden as I gazed upon this little baby in my arms. Life is about family. Family is meant to be eternal. I am so grateful that my family is going to be together forever. This brings me so much peace.

Yesterday, John laughed a real laugh for the first time. I had him on my lap, and I tapped his lips as I said "Bee, bee, bee!" He loved it! He smiled every time, and then he even laughed. That brought joy to my heart. John even did it again for his daddy later in the evening.

When John was a few weeks old, my friend, Lisa brought me the book,  Babywise, to try to help us get John on a flexible routine, and train him to sleep more at night than during the day, and eventually sleep through the night. It focuses on parent-directed feeding, getting in a full feeding every time, having a cycle of feeding time, awake time, then sleep time, and not using any props to help your child fall asleep. It helped us very much. And last night was the night. John went to sleep at 10:45pm, and he woke up at 5:15am - yes 5:15. That means 6.5 hours of continuous, peaceful sleep. Yipee!!! What a blessing. I hope that this pattern will continue. I think if we keep following the babywise principles, it will.

And here's a fun picture my sister, Hannah, and I took a few weeks ago. She posted this one on her blog and said,

"Headlines don't sell papes. Newsies sell papes."

I completely agree, and I am going to watch Newsies next week and sing along :)