November 11, 2008

big girl bed

One of Gus' big birthday presents was a big girl bed from Gramma Carol.She hasn't had a bed in her room since we took down the crib a year or so ago. We finally admitted that really, the crib was just a large storage crate. And we weren't storing babies. And we finally admitted that we are happy co-sleepers whose child sometimes slept a few hours on her own mattress on the floor.
She also is getting bigger and bigger and we can tell that three people in a queen size bed is becoming less than thrilling for her too. Girl wants to stretch out! So...

Guthrie loves it! She told me that the headboard was pretty, which totally thrilled me given that all the other stuff I've made for her over the past couple months have been such non-hits! The headboard was inspired by some old-school, pre-Paige Trading Spaces and since then has been tutorialed on several blogs and websites. It was super easy. If I hadn't had an almost 2 year old telling me "Mama, NO!" about my use of the staple gun -- she's not a fan, go figure-- it would have taken probably 1/2 an hour. Our bed is next. She loves that the cats take turns sleeping on "Deeyah's" (her name for herself. we have no idea where it came from either) bed with her stuffed animals. She loves getting all tucked in and going to bed in it.

And before you get all, wow that transition was easy, she's already sleeping in her own bed all night? I will give you a little dose of reality.
Guthrie has never slept through a night.

IN HER ENTIRE LIFE.

She is two.

I'm sorry fellow parents. I know that is not what you wanted to hear. And for those of you whose child has been sleeping through the night since they were wee. Well, I just hope that you appreciate that every single night because it is a rare gift. When parents are really willing to be honest you find out that most have kids that wake up at least once a night. Sometimes they can put themselves back to sleep, sometimes not. The same goes for Guthrie.

I know, right? Two years. They never talk about that in the pregnancy books do they? (Before we get a bunch of suggestions, I promise we've tried it. We've tried what we're comfortable with and she still wakes up. Her mom and dad wake up several times a night too. As do her grandparents. It's possible we're just some poor sleepers.)

Anyways.
For the past week we have put her to bed in her bed. She sleeps for somewhere between 3 and 5 hours and then, upon waking, she gets taken back to our bed. I've been gearing up to start getting her back to sleep in her own bed when she wakes up. I decided that when I got over my cold I would start. Apparently, as I always forget because I've only been at this 2 years, things don't always happen on my timetable!
Saturday night Guthrie came to our bed around 1:00 and then at about 3:00 she wakes me up and asks to go back to her bed.
What??

So she did. I fell asleep with her because umm, it was 3:00 am and when I woke up I went back to my own bed and she stayed in her own bed.
So, I guess I don't get to wait until my cold is over.

I'll let you know how it goes. I will be pleasantly surprised if it's a smoother transition than anticipated, but I'm also betting we're in for some rough nights.

2 comments:

Jill said...

My kids NEVER slept through the night until they stopped nursing. And I always nursed a long long time :)

All my kids are now great sleepers.

I just went with it and ignored the gasps from anyone I talked to about it.

PaulFank said...

Our youngest is finally sleeping through the night, and he's going to be five in three weeks.

Problem is, a couple of years ago he figured out that if he came into our room quietly, we wouldn't wake up, and he could spend the rest of the night in our bed.

We finally moved him into the bottom bunk in brother's room, and he stays in bed all night. He hates being alone ever, any time, for even a minute, so I'm not sure if the getting out of bed was because he was alone and now he's not so he stays put, or if he's actually sleeping all night, but I think we're finally past it.

There is something to be said for tiny warm middle-of-the-night snuggles . . .

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