Sleeping in her own bed

That sounds too dramatic. She went to sleep in her own bed I'm not sure she'll be there all night (that will be another milestone to post). Lately I've been trying to keep Aesha on a schedule and I hope it's working. I pick her up from daycare around 5:30. It's been nice outside so we've gone to the park or walked around in her little cow harness. Get home and I clean up a bit while she keeps busy in the kitchen doing god knows what. Today, she spent most of that time dumping her bag of cookies into a tupperware, then dropping them into a clean bottle. By 6:30 we get ready to take a bath together.

I've been teaching her how to pull down her pants and pull them up in the morning (getting ready for potty training). We get into the tub and bath until 7pm, put on pjs and she helps me feed the dogs by 7pm. Then we get a snack - usually I'm cooking dinner and she plays on top of the counter. We eat, and by 8pm, brush teeth and head into the bedroom. Tonight I asked if she wanted to snuggle in her bed while we read a couple of books. She loved the idea, don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

Her favorite books are: (i) Where is Baby's Belly Button? (ii) Good Night Sleepy Head and (iii) Farm animals - where we name the animals and make their sounds. The turkey is her favorite - gobble gobble. Thanks Grandmas for all the great books. While reading the last book to her, I give her a bottle. We finish reading, I turn down the lights even more while she plays quietly with her little stuffed animals - hugging and kissing their toes, mimicing me. Finally, I turn on the music and lay my head next to her on the bed. She grabs my head and pulls me close to hug me, sometimes she even kisses me (so cute). And tonight she fell asleep in her bed within 5 minutes. This is huge for me. I've always had to carry or hold her for her to sleep and tonight, it was so easy - I couldn't believe it. She was asleep by 9:15pm.

I've taken the longer route and not forced her into something she wasn't ready for... It feels really good for me that we got here together without a struggle - it felt natural. All the sleepless months are worth every minute of feeling this natural transition.