Monday, November 10, 2008

A room of her own

I haven't been particularly eager to stop co-sleeping with Adriana. Once we had a twin bed for her in our room so that we all had a bit more space, the sleeping situation hadn't been too bad. But the room was crowded with two beds, and we weren't able to turn on the heater in there at night because her bed was right against it, so Brian and I spent Saturday cleaning and organizing and moving furniture. Adriana helped (or, "helped") as much as she could and that night (although the room is not quite finished) I made up her bed with new red flannel sheets in what used to be our office (where "office" is used to refer to a room with a desk that has crap piled on top of it, plus anything else we don't have room for, so that the room is basically uninhabitable and used only for changing diapers in because that's where the changing table is).

I was a bit worried about the transition to her own room. I wondered if she was ready, if she would be clingier during the day because she wasn't right beside me all night, if she would want to come back into our room to sleep. But so far it has gone off without a hitch. Saturday night at bedtime, I read her books in her bed and then nursed her to sleep. After a few hours, I nursed her and then went back to my own room. I don't know how much longer it was until she cried out again, but I went back to her and ended up falling asleep in her bed. I moved back into my own bed after the next time she woke up, but I didn't even have a chance to fall asleep before she was up again, so I spent the rest of the night with her. In the morning she woke up and looked around, signing for Brian, so we all got into our bed and snuggled together for a few minutes before starting our day. It wasn't a great night, but she obviously wasn't traumatized by the experience.

Sunday night we got home late from a visit with friends in Berkeley. I got Adriana ready for bed, read her one story, and then nursed and snuggled her to sleep. She woke up once during the night, but nursed back down quickly enough that I stayed awake and made it back to my bed. And then we didn't hear from her again until 6:30. That's a bit early for her to be awake for the day, but she was definitely awake when I went in to her. Maybe if she'd been in our room she wouldn't have had as much of a chance to wake up before I got to her and would have gone back to sleep, but I don't really know. At any rate, we had to be in San Jose by 8:30 this morning, so it's better that she didn't sleep in until 7:45.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it seems to be going so well. Adriana may not be the world's best sleeper, but she is a flexible sleeper--so long as she is able to nurse when she wants to, she'll sleep pretty much anywhere.

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