Milestones

Getting Liberty to sleep in her own bed, in her own room has been a significant challenge. She started out great. At 6 weeks she was in her own bed and at 2 she was in her big girl bed. I thought I was the best mom ever to have accomplished this feat so early on and with very little trouble. However, when Lilly got sick all that changed. We were all separated for 5 months and since only one person was home with Liberty at a time, we got in the habit of letting her sleep with us. When we finally brought Lilly home from the hospital, Scott and I still slept in separate rooms--one slept with Lilly and the other with Liberty. This arrangement didn't really bother us until Lilly died. At that time, Scott and I obviously wanted to return to sleeping in the same bed together since it had been over a year. It quickly became apparent that 3 was going to be a crowd. However, since Liberty had just lost her sister, I didn't feel good about pushing her to sleep in her room. One tramatic event at a time was the theory I was working with. However, about 6 months ago Scott and I decided it was time to start the transition process. The first few months were very difficult. Each night was a battle. It probably didn't help that we would often let her talk us into sleeping in our bed. When we would actually get her to sleep in her bed, she would still get up in the middle of the night and get in bed with us. I decided I could work with this, since we still got a few hours of alone time. I thought eventually she would just start sleeping through the night. Finally going to bed got much easier. I added lullaby music, which I had done when she was a baby and this seemed to help her fall asleep. Still, she has been getting up in the middle of the night. Last week we added a canopy to her bed and put a box fan in her room. Apparently the combination of music, canopy, and fan was magic because Liberty has slept the past FOUR nights in a row in her own bed!!! This is a HUGE milestone for us. I hope we can continue the trend until its the "norm." Liberty attributes her success solely to the "princess canopy" over her bed. Whatever it is, Scott and I are thankful to have her sleeping in her own room before the baby gets here.