No judging, just celebrating, sleeptime adventures!

I'm getting ready for bed right now... by myself! That doesn't sound like much to all of you I affectionately refer to as nighttime family separtists (meaning your children - sometimes naturally but most likely trained and occasionally even with some real struggles - have always slept in their rooms and you in yours). I'm not judging, I think you have to do what works for your families! And I do think that it's important to teach independence and self-security, to have some privacy, and to have some things a that are still your own. But I am, again lovingly, saying BACK OFF when it comes to my style because I have to say it's worked awesome for us! Now, I would be remiss if I didn't admit that we did it out of survival! Ben was an amazing baby, sleeping 8 hours within the first two months. But then a double ear infection, followed by a bad reaction to an antibiotic and a move all in the same week put a HUGE damper on that. And since we had moved to a new base where we were both expected to be alert and focused enough to keep our pilot students from killing themselves and us as they learned how to master the mighty 135... we couldn't use "the baby kept me up" excuse. So, in he came to our bed. We thought it would be best if we remained alive after all. Anyway, that was about a year and a half ago... and it's been smooth sailing from there. We have always been able to put him to sleep at his early bed time and go about our evening... and he mostly stays all cute and small up in the far corner of our king size bed... and we've never - that's right I said never - have had to deal with one ounce of protest or tears from anyone :) He asks to go to sleep when he's tired and thinks bed time is a good thing, no kidding! Not that I think a few tears from time to time are terrible, sometimes they're inavoidable or may even be a little necessary, but I am so not into the "do it this way because everyone else does and it's easy". I am definately a teacher and a disciplinarian, but there are many things I want to teach him respectfully, calmly, lovingly, patiently and thoroughly... which I really believe is a lot easier and quicker in the long run. And this has been one of them. Who knows, maybe with my next child, and his or her own set of needs and nuiances, the sleep thing will happen a lot differently, but for Ben this has worked great. But maybe not completely great for me. Before all you baby trainers get excited, I'm not admitting that it's been terrible for me... on the contrary... here I am, back to tonight again :), getting ready for bed alone and I will go join Marc and curl up and love being there with him... but there will be a hole, sure it's a happy hole because growing up is a wonderful thing, and Marc is a great bedmate, but there's a little hole nonetheless that I am going to have a small mommy mourning moment about, since my little angel has decided that the arrival of his 2nd birthday meant all kinds of big boy feats had to occur. This is night number 4 that Ben went to sleep in his own bed and in his own room, happily! It was even his idea. Sure I've been planning for and planting this idea in his mind for months... but I wasn't exactly ready for it to happen. I think us having just finished redoing his room in a very cool vehicle theme might have cinched the deal. That and my ridiculous, "mommy will always give you alot of love, BUT when you're a big boy..." So the move has occured! He even let Daddy put him to sleep twice. Tonight it was my turn again, and it was so easy I kept checking to see if he was breathing, like I did when he was a newborn! Now, I'm no so much in la la land that I expect it to always be this easy, or that we won't ever have struggles, but I have to admit... things are looking pretty good right now! And I don't think we, as moms, always give those moments the celebrations they deserve. So I'm going to do a little toast as I try to decide which emotion is the strongest... 1)being crazy proud of my big boy, 2)being thankful that something we built one of our parenting premisses on is actually working out great or 3) just missing him! I'm just amazed that he was ready almost before I was!