Good night, sleep tight!

I completely forgot to write about something even though it was on my mind all the time. So here it is at last. Its about Ashus transition to big bed. I really don't know why we don't let our children sleep with us if that's what they want and not over analyze the issue. But of course, life would be very easy that way and who wants an easy life? So here I am making my life difficult. Ashu slept in her wooden crib which was kept in our bedroom right from her birth until she was 6 months old. This was in Swiss. She took her naps there and slept in it in the nights too. Sometimes after feeding she slept in our bed. Then we moved to Bangalore. And we bought a collapsible playpen which can also be used as a baby cot with a mattress. But our bedroom was very small with a huge double cot, so her cot could nt be put in our bedroom. So she slept in her room. She used to get up at 3am or 4 am and we brought her to our bed and she will continue her sleep with us. When our parents visited, she slept with us in our bed. When we went to visit our parents, she slept with us. So there was no strict routine. But mostly she was ok with sleeping in a separate room. Then after HD left for Swiss, it was Ashu, my mom and I at home. So we 3 slept together in our bed. Reason being that if she slept in her room and got up in the middle of the night, my mom has to get up and pick her up as she wont have the heart to disturb me. And I did nt want her to trouble herself as she was taking care of Ashu all through the day anyway. And more importantly, I did nt want Ashu to sleep on her own when I myself was sleeping with my mother!! No one can say I am an unfair person! Anyway, at the end Ashu and I threw my mother out because she was snoring too loudly, that's another story!

After so much of changes, when we came to Zurich last month to a two bedroom flat, we decided to buy a junior cot for Ashu rather than a crib. It has a side rail so she cant fall off the bed. And also shes old enough to climb down on her own if she wanted to. And we can also sit on the bed to read her a story. Anyway, the cot was already here and assembled by Hd and the mattress bought. We had to buy the bed linen and we did nt have time to buy that. So Ashu was sleeping with us in our bed. Also Hd was seeing her after 3 months and Ashu would have screamed bloody murder if I had even thought about separating her from her daddy. I also wanted her to get used to the house, her room, her cot, etc.. At last, we got around to buy everything and it was all set. One Wednesday, I rocked her to sleep in her room. She knew I was going to make her sleep in her bed and unusually took a long time to go to sleep and when I put her on the bed, she grabbed my hand and would nt let go. I sat with her for 10 more minutes and sang some songs and then she went to sleep. This was at 8.30 pm. Around 12 midnight, she started crying her lungs out. Hd was doing some office work and I was busy blog hopping. I went to her room and picked her up and rocked her to sleep again. Then I went to bed. In an hour, she started crying again and Hd brought her to our bed. She slept the rest of the night without a whimper. Day 2, Thursday - Almost the same scene. She got up around 2 am and was quickly brought to our bed. Day 3, Friday - Surprise! She slept the entire night, got up at 7 am, climbed out of her bed and walked to our bedroom and woke us up! I was one happy mommy! Saturday - Around 12.30, she calls out APPA! She has never called like that before. She always cries loudly whenever she gets up in the middle of the night. Hd and I thought we were imagining that. Then she called again feebly, we thought she was talking in her sleep. After 30 mins, she started crying and Hd promptly brought her to our bed. It has been almost a month now and the pattern remains the same. Goes to sleep around 9 pm, wakes up around 3 am and comes to our bed to continue her sleep and gets up around 6.30 am. Very few nights, she sleeps straight through. So that's how Project "Sleep in your own bed in your own room" is progressing and everybodys happy! :)

After reading Rohinis post on the same subject, I am adding more details.

Ashu has never gone to sleep on her own except when shes on the pram and we are out.

As soon as shes sleepy, she becomes cranky. I put her over my shoulder and sing a song and most of the time, she goes to sleep within 5 minutes. 15 minutes max. We have done 30 mins at times too!

She sleeps though the night without waking only when she sleeps with us in our bed. Very rarely when shes sleeping on her own.

When shes sleeping on her own, she gets up once mostly around 3 or 4 am. Hd picks her up and comes to our bed and she goes to sleep immediately cocooned between us so most of the times we dont even remember how she came to our bed.

She takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon every day and goes to sleep around 8.30 in the night. Never later than 9.30 pm. Gets up around 6.30 am.

Always sleeps with us when shes sick.

She can go hungry for hours but when shes sleepy, she has to sleep NOW.

When it come to her sleep, theres nothing that I have done for her. Shes loves sleeping just like Hd and I, no surprises there! So there have nt been that many sleepless nights for us even when she was a new born. But she had trouble latching on to my breast for the first 3 months and it pretty much made things worse than sleepless nights. She preferred sleep to food just like her lazy Momma!

Shes easily scared and wants someone to be around her all the time. Especially in the nights. I tried cry it out once and she was so scared and cried so much that I decided its not worth it. Anyway, it was not like she was giving us trouble or disturbing our sleep. So I decided to go with the flow. She goes to sleep in her own room but if she needs us in the middle of the night, we are there for her.