The sleeping saga: A bedtime story

This kid never ceases to amaze me. Being our first bebe, I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and absolutely no idea what to do. It's been a learning experience for everyone and each time we hit a milestone or pass through another step, inside my heart jumps up and down and shouts 'I didn't fail, I didn't fail!'. Seriously, this parenting stuff would be less challenging if I didn't care so much.

The sleeping cycle is one of those things, well, who am I kidding, it's THE thing that most scares new parents. It's the one thing EVERYone will ask about: strangers, friends and family alike. 'How's the baby sleeping?' 'Are you getting enough rest?' 'Is she sleeping through the night?' That last one always hit hard. People starting asking me after about 6 months, and I didn't really worry about it until the barrage of questions came at me. Was I a bad mother? Was I completely messing this whole thing up? Why isn't MY baby sleeping through the night?!? Oh my gosh, I was sick over it. I had a few very supportive friends and one very supportive husband who reassured me nothing was wrong and that most children DON'T sleep through the night for at least a year if not more. Reassuring, and NOT at the same time. Ya know? But I tried to tell myself it was fine, I had a happy chubby bebe and the ability to take naps during the day. A friend actually mentioned a great book called 'Spirit-Led Parenting'. Once I started reading {and I still haven't made it through the whole book} I realized I wasn't crazy! Well, at least not entirely. I came to terms with parenting the way I felt at peace with. I learned it was okay to cuddle your baby to sleep every night. It was okay to wake up in the middle of the night and nurse her back to sleep. It was okay to cosleep. It was okay because it worked for us. Maybe something else works for you, but this was our course and we were steering with confidence. Finally.

Well here's the good news, we've rounded a corner. She's now worked her way up to, wait for it, going to bed on her own! This is huge for us. Our old routine included heading up to bed, waiting for her to fall asleep in my arms and trying to put her down in her crib without her waking and crying and wanting back in my arms. This old routine used to take us up to an hour. Every night. It got old, but it was our routine. Well our new routine is FABulous. We head upstairs, turn on the noise machine and put her down in the crib. Where she stays. And falls asleep. All by HERSELF. It's amazing. I don't feel defeated descending the stairs at 9pm, thinking I just lost all my nighttime tea-drinking unwinding me-time. It was worth the wait. She's still waking up once a night, but that doesn't bother me at all because I'm just so happy we've made it here.