Big Girl with Big News

Julia now, at the age of 3.7 years, sleeps IN. HER. OWN. BED. Big news, no? Yes.

I am all for co-sleeping if everyone involved is actually sleeping but in our case Julia was really the only one getting any zzzz's. I was clinging to a a few inches of mattress while trying to ignore the occasional toe digging into my back or not-so-occasional 3 year old diaper butt in my face and Andy gave up altogether and would sleep most nights on the couch. Even Lucy didn't like sharing the bed with Julia the Octopus and would nurse and then decide it would just be more fun to start the day (at 3:02 am).

I feel silly for allowing this to go on so long and throwing my hands up and declaring that there was no way to get her in her own bed. Because,  as it turns out, there is a rather simple way to get her in her own bed. It's called a nightlight.

Andy asked her the other night when she would sleep in her own bed and she said. "Um, maybe when I'm four. Or five. Or eight.". So we suggested maybe she should sleep in her bed now, since school starts soon and she'll need lots of sleep to get up for school. Andy asked her why she didn't like her bed and she said it was too dark.  I have tried the nightlight approach before. In fact, there are 2 nightlights in her room. One that plugs into the wall and one that projects pictures onto the ceiling. But it turns out Julia wanted her own nightlight that she could control. Andy put a taplight on the underside of Hayley's bunk, so Julia can turn it on and off. She loves it. I love having my bed back. Andy loves not sleeping on the couch. The battery industry loves the fact that every few nights we have to change the double A's in the taplight because she leaves that sucker on ALL night long. Oh well, I'm still so proud of my Big Girl.