Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Transition

So ... my kid is totally a rock star.

I should have known this.  She came out of the womb, latched onto the breast, and it took everything I had to wean her at 18 months.  I joked that she knew more about nursing than I did.  I joked that it seemed like she had read all the books before she came out.

We did have some rough spots on the transition from cosleeping.  Basically because I was listening to all the people that swore that if I didn't do it soon that she'd be sleeping with me until she was 8/13/going to college.  So I started trying to get her to sleep in her room before either of us were really ready.  When we were ready, it was a fairly straightforward process.  (I didn't say easy, and I didn't say there weren't tears.)

So she seems to transition well, when she's ready.  And when I'm ready, which may be the more important part.  So I wonder why I was so worried about the transition to a big girl bed.

The first night she slept all night without a peep.

The second night she woke up around 11 and had a hard time going to sleep, and woke up around 3 from what might have been a nightmare.

After that it's been pretty smooth sailing.

You may have noticed from the photos that I had left her crib up.  I wanted to have a fallback position if it got really nasty and I wanted to plunk her there to go to sleep with a pillow over my head.  Thankfully I never had to resort to that desperate move.  You may also have noticed that there is not much room with a crib and a toddler bed and a rocking chair.  By today I was pretty fed up with trying to maneuver in there.  I had the day off and spent it trying to clean and get her clean clothes put away.  No small feat, made even worse when you have to do it tripping over a toddler bed in the middle of the room.  So before her nap I got really exasperated, went and found some tools, and started dismantling the crib.

So it's official.  I have no fallback position.  I have no place to plunk her and go to sleep with a pillow over my head.  She likes touching the wall and she adores the new bedside table where she can put her cup of milk.  The crib is still leaned against the wall in the hallway while I finish putting away the piles of clothes in the living room so there's a path to walk.

Meanwhile, it's finals week.  And Derby week.  No, I'm not crazed, what would make you think that??

My, kid, though?  Sleeping like a baby.

1 comment:

Betsy said...

This is such an encouraging post to read! I'm so glad it worked out for you, and I totally never thought of putting a bedside table next to his bed - I may just do that when our time comes.