It has happened. We have achieved it.

It's that one thing that new parents wish for, more than anything else (except perhaps a healthy baby). No, it's not that elite Italian stroller/car-seat combo. It's not the Eddie Bauer edition play gym. It's not even the matching nursery furniture set from the Babies R Us store, that cost you an arm and a leg, and maybe even part of a foot.

Nope. It's none of these. What it is, is kids that sleep through the night. I'm knocking on wood here, but as of this morning, my little Nugget and Honeybee have slept 3 consecutive nights from 9:30pm until around 6. Sure, there's the occasional 5am whine, but they will either self-soothe or we'll pop in to put the pacifiers in.

The secret? Well, honestly I don't know. It's been a combination of things really. Here's our bedtime ritual:

1) Last feeding ends around 9:30(ish). We feed 6 ounces, currently just use formula and no rice cereal.
2) We use a white-noise generator, although we left that in Florida so the last two nights have been sans-audio for the babies.
3) We have room-darkening vinyl roller-type shades on the windows.
4) We keep the room a toasty 72°F, using a ceramic safety heater with a digital temperature setting.
5) We swaddle them (as much as they allow anyway, they're almost too big).
6) We try to give them the pacifiers, if they want them. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
7) The door is closed, ish. Their room is right across from ours, and our door is wide open.

All that, and they are sleeping through the night thus far. Life is pretty good.