Through to the other side

The long dark night of newborn adjustment is coming to an end in our home. It truly feels as if I've been slogging through a dark tunnel and am coming out to the light of day. A light that, for me, includes schedules, sleep, smiles, and hmmmm...what other s words? Sangria perhaps?
Grayson has most definitely turned a corner in the last couple of weeks. His crying/fussiness began noticeably diminishing and is really only present now when he gets sick of his car seat (which is still fairly quickly). However, he responds to motion MUCH better, so if I can just find a way to take highways everywhere I go we're good. I would love to have whatever gadget cops and ambulances use to change the lights around here when they need to get through. Gray now spends much more time smiling, cooing, and playing and is so responsive to James, myself, and his brothers. He's really entering into that fun stage where he's much more interactive and curious about the world around him. The next obstacle to encounter was, then, the sleep issue. I don't recall if I've mentioned it here (these days I don't recall MANY things very easily), but Grayson has been sleeping with me almost since birth. This happened with my other two boys as well. It was just the easiest way at the time to get some much-needed sleep. To get him to sleep for naps and bedtime either James would rock him in the bouncy seat or I would walk around bouncing him until he finally passed out. It was not unusual for this process to take a half hour or longer which was getting REALLY old (although I think my biceps and calf muscles have benefited tremendously). This past Friday I had finally had enough, so, because I feel he is at an age where a little bit of crying (if it happened to occur) would not kill him (or me for that matter) I started laying him down in his bassinette even if he wasn't sleeping yet. With Jeran I almost had a nervous breakdown going through the "cry it out" phase. With Ben it never really happened, thankfully. With Grayson I was prepared and ready for it. The first night he cried 45 minutes and then dropped off to sleep. Since then I've been laying him down while he's awake for bedtime and nap, and there is still crying everytime, but it has not gone past 30 minutes. Naps are going really well, and initially at night things are smooth sailing as well. He's still waking up during the night, and is not so inclined to go right back to sleep, so that's been a little bit difficult. Other good news, though, is that he has finally discovered his thumb! This kid has been a little Hoover as far as naturally needing to suck, but he has been absolutely adamant about denying the pacifier. So I am thrilled that he's finding a self-soothing mechanism that could possibly make a world of difference in dreamland. Granted, he still has some of that newborn tendency to flail about and lose control of his limbs, so the thumb-sucking is not a perfected process yet, but it's definitely on the right track.
SO - things here are well. Life is starting to return to some semblance of normalcy, and I feel thankful and overjoyed more days than not lately about my complete little family. I know I haven't expressed it nearly enough to Him or anyone else in the past 3 months, but God is truly good.