Move to own bed

About 4-6 weeks ago, we moved Alex to his own bed. It was after a particularly difficult night of moving, kicking, squirming, milk-drinking, that I decided it was time to make this big change. I was tired and I was just plain tired of being tired.

My Mom had suggested that he start taking naps in his own room (instead of our bedroom, our bed)and we had been doing that for a long while - so he was used to his own bed and his own room. Genius! What a fabulous idea - one that I'm glad I have my Mom here to be able to give me this sort of advice! And, I think this piece of advice laid the ground work for things going so easily.

The first night was a little rough and we were up 4-5 times comforting him back to sleep. But, the second night was only 2-3 and the third night only 1-2. It has gone so much easier than I ever imagined!

Last night, for instance....

He started looking sleepy around 8PM so we took a bottle up to his room, changed his diapers, put him in his pjs and closed the door. We have the window blocked off so it's very dark in his bedroom and the twin mattress is laying right on the floor (he has rolled off a couple of times, but luckily it's only inches to the floor). We lay down together - Alex and Mama or Daddy (but not both) - and he drinks his bottle. Daddy is really good at reading books, so sometimes they do this. Then it's lights out and he has been pretty good about falling asleep in about 15 minutes or so. He sometimes just lays there or puts his arms under the pillow or tosses and turns until comfortable.

He woke up around 11PM and just needed to be comforted back to sleep. He sometimes just stirs and makes cries out - but, we've realized he's not awake all the time when doing this. So, we let him really cry out to let us know he needs us or sometimes he just gets out of bed and walks into our bedroom and lets us know. He walked into our room and I got up and laid back down with him for 5 minutes and he was sound asleep until 5AM. He came into our room again and had a bottle of milk (usually has a bottle around 2AM, but we're not going to complain about the extra sleep!) and we slept we slept with him all together in our bed until we woke him up around 6:30 to go to daycare.

It makes those times we do get to sleep together again much more special.

At first, both Lance and I felt like we were ready, but the instant he was gone - we felt like something was missing. We were very ambivalent and didn't know if we made the right decision. We missed him and wondered what he was thinking. Yet - we were very tired and we knew that we made the right decision.

Overall, it has been good. We slept with our baby because that was what I felt was the right decision for me on the first night we brought him home from the hospital and it was right for a very long time. Now at 15 months - he is sleeping in his own bed, own room and it is working out nicely for all involved.