That's right. We've got her sleeping in her own room, in her own bed, in fact- for about a third of the night. In our world, this is a total win. Truly. Monumental.
We'd planned on easing her into this transition somewhere between nine months and a year. I thought by the time I went back to work, she'd be happily installed in a crib, like every other normal (American) baby her age. Alas, it was not to be. What happened instead was, we went ahead and bought a house. Knowing we would be moving, it seemed silly to go through all the heartache of adjusting her to a room that we knew was only temporary. Then, five days before the big move, we had the big flood. (You know the one.) So, most unexpectedly, we moved into a hotel for a couple weeks. Then, even most-er unexpectedly, we lived there for a couple months (plus a couple weeks.) Lots of delays, is what I'm saying.
When we moved into the new house, we set up her crib and piled lots of toys in it. She seemed interested, intrigued even. Or she was until I tried to set her down in it. Then she seemed deeply offended, in that she screamed and gave me this accusing look that said, "I trusted you..." I picked her up. I pointed at Gilbert, the adorable stuffed elephant taking up a good twenty percent of the crib space and said, "Don't you want to visit with Gilbert?" She shook her head no. Hmm. Then I said something like, "Look, I'm going to level with you. Babies sleep in cribs. You are a baby. Ergo, you sleep in a crib, right?" She nodded, so I went on. "It's super fun in there. You can hang out- bring in whatever you like, listen to music, spend some time with baby... that sounds like fun, doesn't it?" She nodded again. I went for broke, "So, where are you going to sleep tonight?" She pointed down in the general direction of the crib! So I put her down, held my breath, and... she walked out the door and around the corner to our room where I found her pointing at our bed, saying something like, "See? Yea."
Anyway, I don't even remember how we got there, but we ultimately decided to convert the crib to a toddler bed. Miracle of miracles, she loved it- in daylight anyway. (Hey, it's a start...) Being able to climb in and out all by herself essentially transformed the thing from cage to jungle gym. Now, after some trial and error, we have a pretty solid routine. We look over the photo album for tomorrow (school or grandma and grandpa), read two or three books and turn on this sound machine that projects sleeping cartoon animals on the ceiling. She's almost always out cold before the animal show is over. (Keeping her down is a whole 'nother story, but we're focusing on the positive here) It's been so wonderful to end the day without a battle...
Here are some more photos of L playing in and around her new, grown up, toddler bed:
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