Sleeping Habits

Lucas, now at 13 months of age is sleeping all through the night. 12 hours, in his own bed, in his own bedroom. All. By. Himself. Sometimes, all I have to do is kiss him goodnight and plonk him into his cot and wave bye-bye.

Lachlan, my 3 year old baby, on the other hand, wakes up at LEAST twice a night if not thrice. Without fail, he would run over to our bedroom to snuggle up between us. Every. Single. Night. At least now he falls asleep himself. For a long long time, he would want one of us in his bedroom, laying there next to him, lending him one of our ears physically for a very painful half hour rub. He needed to touch our ears to sleep. Kid you not.

Now we tuck him in. He's allowed to read a little before bed. But he falls asleep by himself, next to BullsEye (Toy Story), who's next to Elmo, who's next to a fluffy brown giraffe called Daisy and a few hundred of his toy cars, hazardously placed on the floor.

He will wake up at midnight, calling out. And we'd have to put him back to bed. Then somehow in the morning, I'd wake up to him kicking off my warm, snugly doona or being pushed off the bed. (It's usually Gary who gets pushed off the bed!)

Those who know us would know that we've actually come long long way, trying to get Lachy's sleeping habits right. We played musical beds, even musical bedrooms! It's our fault really. We chose to co-sleep, which I think is absolutely fine. It feels right, and natural then. But we're now paying the price. How much longer will he be sharing our bed? For the next 18 years? I hope not...

I guess with Lucas, we were a lot calmer, a lot more experienced. We don't give in to the first cry. We just wait... and wait... And sometimes he falls back to sleep (Which is the way they learn to put themselves back to sleep). And sometimes he just needs a little pat on his back, some soothing words to get him back to lalaland. Ahhh... he is just such a good baby!