While I was gone for the weekend, Elysha allowed our three year old to sleep with her in our bed, the first time this has been permitted.
It could have been disastrous.
After three years of hard-nosed, sleep-in-your-crib-or-else parenting, a break in the routine could have spelled doom. I have friends who spent years with children sleeping in their beds, and I was determined not to fall into the same insane trap. When Clara was three months old, we moved her into her own bedroom, let her cry it out for several nights until she was asleep and never looked back. Other than her recent desire to play in her crib until well after 9:00 PM, Clara has always been an excellent sleeper, getting 10-11 hours of sleep a night without interruption.
Allowing her to sleep with Mommy was a risk, but thankfully, it worked out beautifully.
Clara went to sleep when asked, fell out of the bed only once in the middle of the night, and most important, when put back into her crib on Sunday night, did not complain for a second.
She did manage to steal Elysha’s pillow on Friday night, but that was Elysha’s fault. If she didn’t want Clara stealing the pillow, she should’ve taken it out of the bed until she went to sleep.
