Christine and Keith traded places, she went into the living room on the air mattress, Keith closed the door and stayed in the bedroom with the soon-to-be screamer. Together, Keith and Christine have decided to start letting Austin cry himself to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night (instead of getting in and out of bed every 15-30 minutes to give him a pacifier to keep him quiet). So...whoever is on duty with him from this point forward will go to sleep behind a closed door in the bedroom, while the resting parent for the night will be in the comfortable (and fairly quiet) living room on the air mattress. It is a pain in the a@# to try to keep the mattress in the apartment, but if it helps keep the parent on their "off-night" well rested during the week, than it is well worth it.
Back to Austin...he fell asleep after 45 minutes of inconsistent fussing and crying. He didn't scream too loud, and Daddy got up every 8-10 minutes to rub/pat his back, shush him and sing a quick song in an effort to get him to sleep and let him know he wasn't alone/abandoned...but he wasn't getting picked or plugged up either. He slept until 4:15 am, at which point he dirtied his diaper, so he got changed and then ate at his usual time of around 4:30 am. After eating, Mommy noticed that Austin was awake when she put him down in the crib (and decided to take a picture...see below). Mommy would have preferred to stay in the bedroom, but Austin started to cry again, so she closed the door and returned to her refuge (yes, our tiny little living room is now considered a refuge). This time, Austin only cried for about 7 minutes before once again falling asleep until 7:00.
All in all, it was a very busy evening, with a lot of changes for everyone....but, hopefully, they are changes that will make us all happier and more rested in the weeks to come.
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