A Lot of Catching Up To Do

Flashback to 6 months ago and our 'typical' night:
-Put Max to bed 8:30-9pm in his crib. Leaps from our arms to get into bed. Doesn't make a sound when we leave the room.
-Read books to Gage.
-Get Gage a snack.
-Get Gage a drink.
-Read more books to Gage.
-Let Gage watch an episode of chosen show (Dora, Diego, Dinosaur Train, The Cat in the Hat, etc.)
-Tell Gage, one more episode.
-Gage falls asleep on the couch sometime between 9:30pm and 11:30pm
-Carry him to bed.
-Crash and burn in my own bed.
-Sleep for a few hours to wake to Gage screaming through a nightmare.
-Calm him down, get him a drink, put him back to bed. Takes anywhere from 60 seconds to 15 minutes depending on severity of nightmare.
-Sleep for a few hours to wake to another nightmare from Gage.
-He crawls in our bed, I wake up at some point and stumble to the couch for the remainder of the night.
-Gage up for the day at 6am.
-Max up for the day about 7am.

I understand that there are approximately 746 things we did wrong, but honestly I didn't have the energy to deal with it. I had been shorted my nightly sleep for 4 years and we had tried everything recommended or claiming to work. Temporary success at best.

Here's how it went down tonight.
-8:30, I get home from taking rodeo entries. Knowing my kiddos haven't seen me all day we visited until 8:45 when I tell Gage that he has 15 minute to finish up what he wants.
-8:50 he comes to get his pajamas. Change him and Max into PJs, fill water cups.
-8:52, Max wants to "nuggle a bit" and is stalling (be it ever so slightly).
-8:53, Gage from the top bunk, "I'm sleepy. Can you turn off the light?"
-Grab Max's blanket and binky, lay in his toddler bed to "nuggle a bit".
-9:00, Cover Max up, walk out, close the door. He cries for 15 seconds and then silence.

We've had a similar scenario for a couple of months now.

Crap. We did it. My four year old sleeps through the night.

Sure he sleeps with two stuffed PBR bulls and a stuffed cow to protect him from nightmares. Sure he insists on being covered up with a quilt I found at a garage sale for 50 cents. Sure he still get up between 5:45am and 7am. But he lets me sleep all night. And for that, I am thankful.

How did we do it?

I have no idea.