Sleep Training - The First Night

We decided that the time has come to change our sleeping habits. As a family, we are settled in our new house and things are ticking along quite nicely. Our current habits have developed from the need to settle the boys any way possible and keep them sleeping happily through the night. There have been a lot of changes over the last 8 months and we wanted to comfort the boys as much as possible which has led us to where we are.

At the moment, we stay with the boys until they fall asleep. Should they wake up in the night, I had a bed made up on the floor so I could settle them back to sleep without disturbing anyone else. That meant the only one losing much sleep was me. That situation could only last for so long, as you can imagine.
I'm not sure what the turning point was but last night I decided it was time to take the plunge. I suppose I had been putting it off knowing how tiring and hard work it is going to be. Still, the first step is the hardest right?!

We decided to focus on keeping Squish in his bed all night without needed me next to him first. Once he was asleep, he didn't wake up until about 11;30pm. By this point I was totally shattered, I hadn't been asleep long and it had been a really long day. To be honest with you, I can't remember how many times he got up or I went in to see him. He would settle down after a cuddle and stay in bed quiet for maybe 10 minutes before screaming for me again. I'm sure the neighbours would have heard him, he was that loud. I went in and settled him again. This went on for several hours but I refused to give in.
He had been quiet for quite some time so I was just dozing off when he came poddling in wanting to get into my bed. I gave him a cuddle but told him he couldn't get into bed and I would take him back to his bed. With a few more hugs and reassuring words, he settled down in his little bed. By this point he could hardly keep his eyes open. He was shattered, poor kid. I decided to lay down next to his bed as I was pretty tired too by this point. Unfortunately, I dosed off for a while. When I woke up, thankfully, he was asleep. That was at 2:30am I crept slowly back to bed and managed to get nearly 4 hours sleep before Chaos woke at 6:30am ready to GO, GO, GO!!!

They are currently both asleep so fingers crossed for tonight. I am off to bed now as I keep dosing off typing this! Any advice always gratefully received :)