A Mini Milestone

Nothing huge, but thought I'd document it . . . 

The background: Since Little Bit was old enough to take regular naps (as opposed to the newborn, nurse, sleep, change diaper, repeat thing), she's either slept in the car (I'm a huge fan of having my babies at least know how to nap in the car, it makes traveling so much easier when you can plan it so that a good part of it is while baby/toddler sleeps!), nursed to sleep & then slept/nurped on my lap, or I wait to take my shower until naptime and put her in the takealong swing in the bathroom while I shower. The sound lulls her to sleep & then I leave her in the swing with the fan going (to keep at least some white noise).

At campmeeting this summer I would nurse her to sleep on the bed, then could get up and read or do other quiet things in the motorhome while she slept on the bed. I've done that a few times at my parents' house too, and once, soon after campmeeting, here at home, she asked to take her nap on the bed and I laid down with her and nursed her to sleep, then got up. It worked great, but honestly, given the choice between laying down with her to nurse, or getting my shower done w/o worrying about where she is or what she's doing, I'm pretty happy with the swing/shower method. She knows the routine, and when she wakes up she just yells "Mommy, come get me" or "Mommy, me awake!"

Nighttime, she's still sleeping in our bed (which is a queen+twin, so plenty of room), I still usually nurse her to sleep downstairs then carry her up and go ahead & go to bed when she does (probably wouldn't have to, but she's a night owl, so I'm usually ready).  I'm not desperate to get her out of our bed, or not nurse her to sleep, but have been thinking toward that eventuality. The big girls love the idea of having her sleep with them, and I certainly wouldn't complain if I could put her to bed with them and have a couple hours in the evening with all 3 children asleep. . . so, when I saw a good deal on babysteals.com for a little turtle that is a nightlight the child can turn on/off itself, carry around, etc. I decided to get it. Wasn't necessarily going to give it to her right away, but she saw me open teh box and she LOVED her turtle immediately. I told her that this turtle is for her to sleep with in "Sissies' room" and she was fine with that in theory, carried her turtle around all day, told Miss Judy it was for sleeping in Sissies' room, but bedtime came, and she wanted nothing with sleeping in their room, which is fine, and she was fine with not sleeping with the turtle since she wasn't in their room.  We did set up her "bed" in their room so she could see where she would sleep.  They sleep on the floor under their loft. Sassy sleeps on a regular mattress on the floor, but MiniMe has a King sized "feather bed" designed to go on top of a mattress, it's folded in half and she loves her "cloud". Since it's white, and I had an extra white down comforter, I folded it to fit in the space next to MiniMi's bed, and put Little Bit's pillow and favorite blanket there and that's her bed. So the last couple nights I've suggested it, she'll often lay down on her bed with her turtle while I tuck the big girls in, but then, even if I lay down with her, she won't stay laying down there and go to sleep. No biggie, she's getting used to teh idea, she'll do it when she's ready . . .

So, today at naptime I told her it was time to go upstairs for her nap, to find whatever baby/stuffed animal she wanted to "rock to sleep" (in the swing that no longer swings, but she likes the idea of rocking baby to sleep instead of it being about HER going to sleep). She picked up her turtle and I reminded her that her turtle "only sleeps in Sissies' room". She said "me sleep in Sissies' room" I fully expected her to change her mind when we got upstairs, but she didn't. She went potty, then went in and laid down on her "bed", I got her pillow and blanket and got her all settled in with her turtle. Turned on an Uncle Rick CD and told her she needed to stay laying down and go to sleep. Then I went and took my shower, fully expecting her to come in the bathroom after about 30 seconds and want to get in her swing. But she didn't . . .

I took a short shower, then left the water running when I got out (in case she was almost asleep and turning the water off woke her back up), peaked around into the girls' room and she was laying on her bed, but still awake. Gave her a few more minutes, peaked again, and she was sitting up, so I told her to lay down, which she did, but was still fiddling with things, not going to sleep. So I went in and laid down beside her and every time she opened her eyes I'd quietly say "close your eyes and go to sleep", in all of maybe 3 minutes, she was out. And she slept there for a normal length nap (didn't pay attention to times but it was all in the normal range)!!! We were all very "excited" that she'd slept in Sissies' room like a big girl! We shall see if it continues . . . but it's another step toward growing up :)