Celebrating Our Night Time Successes

What can I say about our nights? Well, for starters, I love them! I know people often feel the need to down play their experiences of getting their children to sleep - if they are good experiences that is. However, I decided I would celebrate our good sleeping patterns in today's post.

I love that we have been so fortunate, when it comes to night times in our house. I used to panic that we would never get any sleep. You hear so many horror stories of children that don’t sleep through the night; or children that need a light on because they’re afraid of the dark; or children that end up sleeping with in their parent’s bedroom and/or bed for longer than the average. We have never had any of these problems!

Celebration 1: R slept through the night from just six weeks young.

I couldn’t believe it the first time our little girl slept through the night at just six weeks of age. I spent half the night waking up and checking on her – but she was absolutely fine. In many ways she is just like her dad – especially when it comes to sleep - once she is asleep, there is no disturbing her!

Celebration 2: We got our own space back when R was four months of age.

We were also lucky that she has been in her own room since she was four months young. Being able to have our bedroom back to being our own, massively helped my relationship with my husband. Don’t get me wrong, having a baby never caused any harm to our relationship – but it certainly changed it. Having a baby in the room – even one who is sleeping through the night –changes the dynamic. In that way, I am glad that we moved her into her own room – after all, that’s what baby monitors were invented for!

As she goes to bed hours before John and I do, it means that we have time for us. We have the option to have an early night, or chill out in front of the TV together. We can spend a few hours together before one or both of us crashes out.

Celebration 3: We have at least twelve hours of child free time while R sleeps.

I have always tried to have our girl in bed sometime between six and eight in the evening - after dinner, bath time, a bed time story, a prayer and a song. She has never really had a problem with being in the dark, but she has a Lindam Owl night light that we use until she is in her bed, and then she will turn it off herself. It’s a nice little way to dim the lights and make her aware it’s time for bed.

I’m not going to lie, sometimes she will get up early – or go to bed late. When she is not well, R has been known to jump in with daddy and mummy to go to sleep; so we don't always have the child free time. Thankfully, as we have a king size bed, this doesn’t really affect us much – apart from the constant back jabs and smacks in the face we get as she is a bit of mover in her sleep.

Mostly though, we are so lucky that R will sleep in her own bed, and sleep for at least twelve hours through the night.

Obviously everything is about to change all over again. When Little L arrives in a few weeks time, she will be in our room. We are planning to bed share using our new Chicco Next2Me crib; and in the early days I will be up and breastfeeding for those hardly missed night feeds.

We are hoping to be able to have more great sleep successes with L, but each child is different, and the reality is that we have no idea what we will be facing once she arrives!