Sleeping Beauty

 Adrienne is a good sleeper by nature, certainly not from any training that we have done.  In fact, looking back, I really tried hard to sleep-ruin her for the first year of her life.  I knowingly nursed her to sleep every night for the first 11 months.  If she woke up, I’d rush back in and nurse her again.  Lots of times I’d bring her back to our room instead, hoping we could cuddle through the night like I'd seen in pictures (or imagined in my head?).  As it turns out, Adrienne’s version of cuddling involves laying across my face, where she can sleep peacefully but I find it troublesome to breathe. So usually after a few minutes or so, I’d take her back to her crib where she would sleep the rest of the night on Bear-Bear’s face (who is much softer and compliant in this matter).

We are beyond that time now and have since established a bedtime routine that I'd imagine looks pretty similar to most people’s: dinner, bath, books, night-night.  Some nights I gather that Adrienne doesn’t want to finish the routine; she just wants to go to bed.  I can’t tell this for sure, but there are some subtle hints I am becoming aware of including: 1.Sometimes before the routine is finished she runs into her room and stands by her crib, as if she is trying to figure out how to climb into it. 2. Sometimes when we do make it through the entire routine, she actually cheers when we walk into her bedroom to put her in her crib. Like a soft, sweet “Yeeaaaaaahhhhh!!!” Doesn’t she know that the bedtime routine is important?  To me??

The other morning I got up for a shower and I heard her music box on.  We have a music box that we play for her when she is going to sleep.  I poked my head into her room, thinking she had woken up early, but there she was peacefully sleeping with her arms around Bear-Bear. Apparently she woke up, turned her music box on, and settled back down…All by herself!  I wonder how often and how long she has been doing this?

So, needless to say, it was fairly unusual when Adrienne woke up yesterday night just as we were getting ready for bed.  (My best guess is that her mouth was bothering her, because she has about 6 new teeth coming in right now, but that is beside the point, and mostly small details for Grandma and Grandpa if they are reading this.) I brought her into bed with us, hoping that would settle her but she continued to roll around, fuss, and cry.  Finally, I propped some pillows up, sat back and pulled her on to my chest.  She crawled onto me, belly to belly, and immediately relaxed with her head on my shoulder, drifting quickly back into sleep.  It was a moment quite rare with Adrienne, since she is normally such a self-sufficient sleeper, and I admit that I held her there for quite some time just quietly listening to her breathe. 

These are obviously dated pictures and I acknowledge their gratuitous use here....aren't they oh so sweet?!