The Big Girl Bed

With baby #2 due in a little over 4 months (most likely joining us sooner if she's anything like her sister), we have decided it's finally time to move Cece to her own big girl bed in her own room. Cece has been sleeping in or next to our bed for most of her life, except for six months where we tried to "train" her to sleep in her bed (I put it in quotes because I don't think Cece is train-able). Once I decided to stop caring what everyone else thought and what I thought I was "supposed" to do, the decision to bring Cece into our bed made our life easier and we loved having the cute little snuggly girl next to us all night. I can't say anything about Cece's sleeping is easy, though. I struggle to get her to bed almost every night, even though I do everything in my power to help her get to sleep. I end up lying in bed with her for almost an hour most nights. Some nights I fall asleep, some nights I lie there reading on my phone happily, and other nights I lie there fuming that I somehow have the most difficult sleeper in the entire world for a daughter. I really would love to video tape one of our "bedtimes" to show her when she's older so she can appreciate what I've done for her. But I know she still won't get it. You can't truly appreciate your parents until you've had children of your own.

So I've known for a while we need to make an attempt at getting her in her own room soon. And I say attempt because I know nothing is easy with Cece. Our girl is amazing, but she's half Pete and half Jade, which means anything but easy going. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't feel at all ready to have Cece in a separate room. I hated when she was in her own room as a baby. I felt so worried about her and would always stare at her on the video monitor. I still feel strange about my little girl sleeping in a separate room even though I know the majority of the kids her age in this country sleep that way. But I'm starting to get uncomfortable with being pregnant and waking up a lot during the night. And I can't seem to move without waking Cece up or without making her snuggle back up to me. So I am now ready. But I know she's not going to make this easy.

Tonight was the first night going to sleep in the big girl bed. It wasn't pretty. But it never is. After reading her Big Sister book FOUR times, some lying there quietly, some screaming bloody murder, some pacing around the room carrying her, she is finally asleep. And I'm sure this won't last more than a couple of hours so I'm curious how many times I'll have to go in there (or if I'll end up giving up and bringing her back to bed). I think it could be months before she's sleeping in there well. Or we may end up bringing the bed into our room. I have learned not to make my own big plans for Cece. She has her own plans! Here is a cute picture of her first nap in there today, which went much easier than bedtime but was about a half an hour too short.