Nashi just took a huge step towards sleeping in his own room.

The step: sleeping in his own room.

He started mentioning that he can sleep by himself now, because he’s such a big kid. So last week we gave it a go. During the day he was very excited about the plan to sleep by himself. While we were getting ready for bed, he was very excited about the plan to sleep by himself. Then we got in bed and he says “actually I want you to stay here.” I say ok, or I could stay until you fall asleep and then go to the couch. I’ll be there all night if you need me. He says ok. Two minutes of silence later, he whispers “actually I want you to stay here all night.” I say ok and stay.

Mama and I decide we like the intent, and there’s no reason to pressure him beyond that. I don’t even particularly want to sleep away from him because i’m a puddle of mush. Anyway, next morning we wake up and go visit the women like usual, then he all of the sudden starts crying and says “I wanted to sleep by myself last night!” He didn’t really accept my point that he asked me to stay. Oi.

So the plan, again, is he will sleep by himself. It probably sounds a lot more doable during the planning stages in broad daylight, before shit gets real as the sun goes down. But fine, we’ll go with the plan again. Again, he’s excited all day. Then we get into bed and he says “actually I want you to stay here.” I tell him he got very upset in the morning because I stayed. He replies with “I’ll be very upset if you leave.” So I get his verbal commitment not to be upset in the morning if I stay and he agrees.

True to his word, he wasn’t upset in the morning. Mama, meanwhile, has ordered a turtle nightlight thing and later comes attempt #3. We snuggle in bed and he falls asleep. Admittedly, I didn’t ask about sleeping by himself, in case that last check-in psychs him out. The downside is maybe I’m tricking him into sleeping by himself. Who knows. I leave for the couch, Nashi is sleeping by himself, and I’m not particularly feeling like this counts.

At about 1am I hear him cry out for me and I go in and sleep next to him. The next morning Mama and I praise him for sleeping by himself most of the night! Next night, same drill. Except this time I do the last check in and to my surprise, he still agrees with the plan: I stay until he falls asleep, then go to the couch.

He slept until about 5am! Between that and the check in, we count that as his official full night by himself. It’s now three nights in a row of the same thing: I lay with him until he sleeps, he makes it until 5-6am, comes out to the couch and falls back asleep for another hour.