Transition From Co-Sleeping To Sleeping Independently

My gals used to co-sleep with us since they were born. When they were newborns, they slept with DH and I, wedged between us, that made them feel oh so secured. That also made breastfeeding so much easier for me. After I weaned them off breastfeeding, I transferred them to their Safe n Sound baby cots, so we had 2 baby cots in our room then, one next to me and one at the foot of our bed.

After we moved to our new place late last year, my mum strongly advised me to wean them off co-sleeping with DH and I. You see, this new place of ours has a connecting room / kids’ room to the master bedroom, which makes weaning off co-sleeping all the more easier. So DH bought a queen-size mattress and a kids’ bed railing for the gals. Later, he bought a big cupboard and filled the cupboard up with their toys. My mum also bought cute cartoon bedsheets for the mattress and we all tried to make the whole transition appear really fun. The gals and I slept horizontally on the mattress, with me sandwiched between them. Everynite, after lulling the gals to sleep, I would quietly sneak back to my room to continue sleeping or to do my work.

Of course, there were teething problems initially. It took the gals almost 2 months for them to begin identifying that that is their room, the place for them to sleep and play and the master bedroom is only for daddy and mummy. I had 2 months of continuous interrupted sleep everynite, a few times a nite. I’m glad that they now adore their room. Even when DH sometimes invites them to sleep over at our room, the gals would insist that they want to sleep in their own room, on their own mattress.

Every now and then, I still get ‘night visitors’ to my room. It’s really freaky you know, to be jolted up from your sleep and dream with a tap on your shoulder or hand, only to find 2 little figures standing next to you smiling. A few nites ago, Sherilyn had climbed onto my bed herself in the middle of the nite and slept next to me at the very edge of the bed. When I turned over, it freaked me to find her sleeping next to me with her 2 tiny legs dangling over the edge of the bed. One roll over from Sherilyn would have landed her hard on the floor.

I think I better get DH to fix a security gate at our room door now.