Sleep!!!

It is no secret that sleep has never come easy to our little one.  When she was a baby she had to nurse to sleep.  Had to.  Every time.  No bottles, ever.  She hated those.  Then one day she decided bottles were cool and she never wanted to get rid of them.  Then one day we managed to find a non-leaking sippy cup that she could have in her bed.  We tried countless times to get rid of the milk in the cup, dilute it down to water, go cold turkey and every time it ended in disaster.  The screaming at the top of your lungs until you nearly get sick kind of disaster.  Then there was the phase where one cup of milk was not enough.  Then the phase where she woke up more in the night than she did as a newborn and you were not getting out of her room unless she was coming with you -- to your bed.  While I love snuggle time with my babies, I also really love to get a certain amount of sleep.

A couple of weeks ago we just decided to go cold turkey on the no milk thing.  I am not going to lie, the first few nights were rough.  I have heard my daughter scream, "I don't like water any more"more than I care to hear.  After three days of water in her cup, she no longer even asks for her cup at night.  She doesn't scream...she might tell you she doesn't like water, but it is done in a calm voice.  She goes in her room and goes straight to bed (after she gives you 10 "big girl hugs" and 27 kisses on your "chicks").  She has not been up in the middle of the night once, except a couple of times when she had to go to the bathroom.  And guess what...those times that she did wake to go to the bathroom she went and ran right back into her bed and went back to sleep, on her own, without us in the room, without a single tear.  A miracle has happened.

The boys really spoiled us with sleep.  They went to sleep on their own so easily from a very early age.  Owen had a phase around the time the pacifier went away that was challenging (he would not stay in the bed at the beginning of the night), but it was nothing compared to this little lady.  Ryan has always been a dream with sleep...he wakes up super early but he has always just gone to bed.  He could be playing and decide he is tired, tell you and go put himself to bed -- easy.  

I am so thankful that bedtime has become a little less stressful and now our biggest issue is who gets bedtime cuddles last (they think the last person gets the longest cuddles) and who gets to choose the first story.