ANOTHER BIG MILESTONE - SLEEPING ALONE!

It has been almost a month since Agu boy moved to his room, he is clearly not very happy about it but it brought in a lot of peace to our nighttime routine and sleep :D 

With this almost 4-feet-tall 4-year-old-boy, practicing soccer, tag and dance moves in his dreams, our king-size-bed couldn't save Sooraj and me from his kicks, punches and choking hugs! So we decided to talk to Agu about him moving out.

After weeks of talking about the perks of having a room all to himself, how Llama Llama, Pepa Pig, and Daniel Tiger slept in their own room, one afternoon finally he agreed to try it out. We carried out our usual bed-time-story-time, good night cuddles and assured him we are just a room away and he can always call us if he wakes up in the middle of the night. He slept on my tummy (as always), I rolled him on to the bed, turned off the lights and literally had my heart beating in my throat when I walked out of the room. 

He woke up every 2 hours and called me the first two days, then started sleeping through the night!

A month now and he does call me once in a while, but I don't rush to his room right away as he dozes off to sleep on his own most of the time.

THINGS THAT HELPED:

• First few days, make sure you rush to their room as soon as they call, this will convince them that you are always around when they need something
• Always picture it as a positive thing and not a punishment, make it sound so exciting that they will be eager to try it out :D
• Get a favorite toy to cuddle or a nighttime bedside light. For us, PAW PATROL clock with paw lights on it helped him settle down
• We have always emphasized  on the fact that monsters, ghosts, and scary creatures exist only on TV and not in our world (I have my eyes closed half of the time during a horror movie and do not sleep for days after that, but I try my best to act bravely in front of him :D) So when he wakes up at night, he is not scared, he only wants to make sure we are around!

Like every other milestone, the initial few days were bumpy, I couldn't sleep thinking if his blanket has moved away or if his sipper was out of water and I got my dark circles back but eventually it has brought in a bit of structure to bedtime & we all have started enjoying our own little space!