Oliver can put himself to sleep. Hooray!

Now many of you already know that we have been actively helping Oliver fall asleep since he was born, and by helping I mean nursing to sleep (until 14 months), then rocking to sleep, and finally rubbing his back to sleep while he was in his crib until recently. Since about 10 months, he has slept through the nights most nights and has taken good naps, so we were okay with this slow progression. However, one night about three weeks ago, Oliver decided it was time to put himself to sleep. So after a couple of nights of crying for a few minutes, and a couple more nights of being up until about 9:30 or 10:00pm trying to put himself to sleep he has finally got the hang of it. For the last few nights we go through our routine and then leave the room, and it has only taken about 2o or 25 minutes for him to fall asleep.

Well today, I decided that it was time for him to try to put himself to sleep for a nap. I left the room and on the baby monitor I could here him talking to his bunny (his lovey) for a few minutes, and then he was out for 3 hours and 20 minutes. Perhaps it would have been longer, but I woke him up at 4:20 for fear he wouldn't go to sleep that night. I was able to snap these sweet pictures of him before I woke him up. We are so very proud of our big boy! Sleep Oliver, sleep!