Great Day! (despite my cold...)

First, I have another cold. Boohiss about that.
But we have excellent news regarding the wonderful Ev man! Two big steps forward yesterday/last night.
First, we are done with the shield for nursing! After reading some in my breastfeeding book and twice noticing that they recommended not using a shield and if you did, to use it very short term (as in days, not weeks), I decided that we would start trying to get rid of it. I had read that it can be difficult to wean a baby off the shield, but since Everett never had problems switching between breast and bottle, I hoped for the best. Sure enough, he didn't appear to care in the slightest! And, in addition to not having to deal with putting the shield on for every feeding, our feeding time has been cut nearly in half! Using a shield can slow the milk flow, but it is amazing how much so. Instead of nursing for 15-20 minutes per side, he's now down to about 9-13 per side! Of course, this worries me at first (because it is now part of my official job description), thinking that he's not getting enough, but diapers have remained the same and he seems generally content, if not a little bit more sleepy. Which leads to our other good news....
Last night, we slept for 6 hours!!!! (I of course worried about this too...) I'm not sure if it's because we are both pretty stuffy and are trying to get over it, if it's because I took a nasal decongestant and just didn't wake up when he did (kidding!), or if it is somehow related to losing the shield, but I'll take it! Recently, he has been doing great and starting to go about 4-5 hours for our first sleep, then back to 2-3, but last night we had 6 for the first sleep and then another 3! Yay! Unfortunately, I still do not feel entirely rested because of this darn cold, but I am grateful for what extra sleep Ev let me have. We now do not wake Brian up at night because he has to work in the morning, but dang! If it's only getting up twice and one of those times is after 5-6 hours of sleep, I'll take it! Especially since feedings tend to last a maximum of 30 minutes now, throw in a diaper change, and we're done in under 45 minutes instead of the 1-1.5 hours it used to take. YAY!!!!!!!!