Success in Sleeping!

I am on cloud nine right now! Last night I was VERY nervous about how the whole sleeping ordeal would pan out, but let me tell ya, it couldn't have gone any better, in my opinion. This is how the night went-

~ From 7:30-7:30 we had bath time and story time.
~ We rocked, sang, and nursed until 8:10, which is the most precious time of day to me.
~ Brooke was sound asleep so I put her in her crib.
(Everything listed above is the typical night for us. The rest of our night is what's difference)
~ Brooke woke at 8:45 wanting play. Usually we would give her a second to let her go back to sleep, but then determine that she wasn't tired so we would play with her (I know, stupid parenting move). However, last night we turned her back over onto her tummy and left the room.
~ She played for about 10 minutes until she got MAD and wanted out of her room. That's when the screaming started. I couldn't handle it so I went into the basement and did some laundry. John took care of it all. He patted her back every two minutes.
~ At exactly 9:06, we had a sleeping baby and that was the last we heard from her until 1 o'clock! She woke up in her bed a few times but she somehow managed to put herself back to sleep.
~ At 1 I nursed her (It had been 5 hours) and put her back into bed with me (Putting her back into her crib is the next step after this), where she slept through until 8:50 this morning.

Last night was SO hard because I hate the sound of Brooke crying like that. Those 10-15 minutes were torture for me. I was looking through her baby pictures just sobbing. However, I was prepared to have her scream for an hour, but the whole process was done in under 20 minutes, so I really can't complain! I think that that's awesome! I really feel like we got somewhere and because it went so well I am determined to keep it up.

I was worried that Brooke would "lose my trust" or be "mad" at me for doing that to her, but this morning she was all smiles and I realized that she won't hate me for this. This is just a form of discipline that I'm trying to instill in her to HELP her, not to harm her.

I'm going to focus on getting her go down by herself at night, then focus on her night wakings, and lastly, I will try to work on nap times. I really feel like that's the best way to do this whole process. One step at a time!

I will also admit that those 5 hours she was sleeping were so weird for John and me. We are so used to have a wide awake baby during that time period. We were able to watch a movie, do our devotions, and talk.. Baby free, for a change. As much as I love Brookie, it was refreshing!

Well I'm off to take my parent's to the airport. I like them so much that I'm not sure I'll really let them get on the plane and leave me! Ha! We'll meet up with them in Florida in LESS THAN A WEEK!