Saturday, October 04, 2003
Two times in a row? This is strange .... watching your child fall asleep on his own, when you have been so used to coaxing that same child to go to sleep, with him fighting it every step of the way. It seems kind of surreal in retrospect. He was definitely tired, so I asked him if he wanted to go to bed. We nursed on our bed, and then I asked him if he was ready to go into his bed. He started to protest, but I asked him if he was tired (he rubbed his eye, which is his sign for it) and I told him, then we'll put you in your bed and you'll go night-night, and he was fine with that. I know for a FACT that if I had done that last week, there would have been an entirely different reaction, so this is good!! As with his nap, he continued to roll around and play a bit in the bed, and I kept a corner of my eye on him while I sat and then laid on our bed and read.
After about 20 to 25 minutes, Jeff had come into the room, which almost ruined the progress we made, but I wasn't affectd, I tried to turn the situation into a positive. He wanted to get up, so I asked him to give hugs and kisses to Daddy, which he was happy to oblige me on. Jeff tried to get him back in bed, but there was the start of a protest, so I decided to take the opportunity to get Parker's teeth brushed again. Parker happily went with Daddy to brush his teeth, and from where I was, there was NO CRYING or FIGHTING over it!! Wow! And then Jeff walked him back into the room, to his bed. Hugs and kisses and then Parker was put back in bed with his monkey lovey and his quilt. Jeff left the room, and Parker stayed where he was. It was amazing to me to see this.
From this point, he did a few really cute things that made me love him even more. He took time to examine his monkey given to him as a newborn by his Nana and Granddaddy and the Americana child's quilt that his Great-Aunt Sandy made for him. He was very interested in all the little stars on the quilt. He would very cutely bounce his body on his bed, and then roll himself up in his quilt. I even peeked at him playing peekaboo with himself using his monkey lovey. And then he gave it up. He just rolled over, closed his eyes (all wrapped up in his blanket) and went to sleep. It was about 20 to 25 minutes from when Jeff had come into the room.
So, in total, another 50 minutes. But NO crying, NO fighting, AND he slept through the night (from 10:30 pm to 7:40 am)!! I ended up sleeping in his room, so that he wasn't near me just in case that is part of the catalyst to waking him up during the night. I'm am truly giddy with excitement over the easy to bed and the through the night stuff. I sincerely hope we can repeat that today, with Daddy home all day. It is time for sleep to be more of a non-issue around here.
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