Transition to the crib (long)

Long and possibly boring post but something I want to remember and that may help someone else..

One of my biggest worries and the thing I was stressing out most about was the fact that I knew I had to transition Andrew from sleeping in his bouncy seat to his crib. Why was that such a big deal? Well Andrew has been STTN (sleeping through the night) consistently since about 8 weeks. He's slept in long stretches 4-5 hours (which some people consider STTN) since about 3 weeks. I knew that the bouncy seat was a big reason for that. I really love my sleep and hated to fix something that wasn't broken. But I knew he needed to sleep in his crib before bad habits start forming. So at 11 weeks old (which was a week and a half ago), I decided that would be the night. At first it went really well! I couldn't believe how easily he went down aside from a few times of going in to pop in his pacifier. We also tried using the Snuggle Nest with an incline in his crib. Big time FAIL! I found him at 4am at the bottom of his crib perpendicular and he had peed through his diaper and swaddle. Now we just use a sleep positioner, and yes I'm aware that they are being considered unsafe. The one we have is breathable mesh and he does not move now that he is flat on his back. Anyway, the middle of the last week everything started going down hill. He did NOT want to go to sleep at night. It started taking about an hour and a half to get him to go down. Sometimes he'd sleep for a bit then wake up crying and the process would start all over. The good thing was that once sound asleep he would stay asleep until at least 4am. I thought that was really good and honestly it was one of the only things that kept me from grabbing that bouncy seat and sticking Andrew back in it! About one week into the transition it started getting easier to put him to sleep. It now takes about a half hour. What I do is put him in his crib drowsy but awake. He may lay there for a bit or fuss for awhile but I don't go in until he cries. Sometimes he has just one loud cry, which usually means he dropped his paci, but if he cries continually I pick him up until he is calm. The past few nights after I pick him up and put him back down, he is usually out for the night. His wake up times have varied. He's been waking between 3-4 for his paci or a cuddle then goes back to sleep. Last night he woke up at 3:15 and after I couldn't get him back down I realized he had pooped! Then he will sleep til anywhere between 5:30-7:30. After I feed him I do put him back in the bouncy because I just cannot stay awake at 5 or 6am! I'm too exhausted. In any case, I'm happy with the way things are going but hope that he will stop waking for his paci in the middle of the night. I'll keep you updated on the transition. :)