NagMummy

M has finally moved out of her cot. We have been thinking about moving her to a single bed for a while but was afraid we won’t be able to manage her new-found freedom during bedtime. Hence, we’ve procrastinated the move till 2 weeks ago. Well, we did not have a choice, she has doubled her birth length and there isn’t much space allowance for her in the cot anymore.

We decided to get her a bed with a pull-out at the bottom so we can sleep with her when she’s not well. We eventually picked one cream-coloured divan bed where the top mattress is a super-single and the bottom a single. To prevent her from falling off the bed, we got her a bed rail. And since we can’t stop her from getting off the bed, we fixed a safety gate at her bedroom doorframe so she can be kept safely in her room.

The transition turned out easier than we thought. She was very excited about the ‘graduation’ and kept jumping on the bed when it arrived 2 Saturdays ago. That night, we kept to her usual bedtime routine closely and she actually did not attempt to get down after we switched off the lights and left her room. Wonderful, we thought! Perhaps she had been so used to being confined to her cot.

The next morning, we found her sitting in front of the gate waiting for one of us to pick her up. I think that was when she realised why the gate was there. After that, she refuses to let anyone lock it. We still do it after she falls asleep. Besides trying to avoid the bad habit of running into our bed, we really don’t want her to run into danger while we’re asleep, especially in the kitchen.

It’s interesting how ‘big’ she seemed in the cot then and how ‘small’ she now seems in the super single bed. Still a baby nonetheless…

A lot of people are surprised that M sleeps on her own at night. She has been sleeping in the cot in her room since she was born but there was always an adult close by. When she turned one, we decided she was ready to be on her own. She was sleeping well and no longer needs a night feed

The only exception was when she was sick. And we always keep a baby monitor on through the night so we are alerted to her cries easily.

I’ve definitely been sleeping better since moving out of her room. It’s really beneficial that I get a good night’s sleep so I have the energy to take care of her during the day. I really appreciate this daily ‘time-off’ from her.

I remember an ex-colleague who mentioned that the only time she spends with her son was during sleep on work days, and that’s why her family co-sleeps on the same bed. How sad, I thought then…

So even though we’ve gotten a few frowns from people who seemed to imply we’re not good parents for letting M sleep on her own, we’re still behind it. It’s really just a matter of time.

For one, we will be spared the trouble of kicking her out of our bed or room when she’s older, which most people agree, will be tougher.

M started to nap in the old school sarong rocker when she was two months old. It allowed her to nap for longer stretches of time and allowed me to take a break. She was quite a ‘cry baby’ then, so we introduced the pacifier around the same time but kept it strictly for sleep. We even played soothing music at times to induce her to dreamland.

When her daily routine stabilised around six months, we started to wean her off the pacifier and music. The music was easy; we just stopped playing. As for weaning her off the pacifier, we first started with the afternoon naps. I would let her fall asleep with it and then try to remove it after she falls into deep sleep. At times, it startled her and I had to let her have it again. But after a week or so, she did not even need it to fall asleep. We then went on to do the same thing when she sleeps at night. All was well and the pacifier became reserved for emergency only.

But the sarong rocker remained our ultimate life-saver…

So much so that M would only want to nap in it. But as she grew substantially heavier, we began to worry about her falling out of it. Her weight gradually caused the sarong to sink lower and lower such that if her legs dangled out she could touch the floor.

I first tried to get her to nap in her cot when she around 1.5 years old but no matter what I did (milk, pacifier, music), I was unsuccessful. She would stand in her cot, point to her sarong rocker and cry till I brought her there.

Disheartened by the attempts, I did not try again till a couple of months later. This time round, the first attempt was already encouraging; even though I needed to re-introduce the pacifier and soothing music. She would cry when I put her in her cot; I would come back in with the pacifier and she would fall asleep after a while. Hence, I managed to get rid of the sarong rocker at the expense of the two lesser evils.

Not willing to settle at this, I tried not giving her the pacifier a few days later and she could fall asleep on her own! That made my day. Left with the least of the three evils  – soothing music, I was really not in a hurry. And getting rid of it proved to be a breeze…