eight minutes to freedom

When Leila was brand new she would sleep no where else other than plastered to my side. Even if she was fast asleep and we tried to move her to her cradle she would instantly wake up. So it was much to my surprise that after another horrible night of sleep Tom put her in her cradle in the living room and after crying for eight minutes (during which he held me to the bed so I wouldn't go to her) she fell asleep and stayed asleep. Since then, she's only been waking up once a night usually around 3am to eat, then she wakes up and 6:30 and comes back to our bed for cuddles and another snack. Sure, I'm not basking in sleep, but this is so much better than waking up every 30 minutes between 3 and 6am. I almost feel like a normal human.

It's strange in a way to let go like this. Before I had her I read a lot of stuff about "attachment parenting" or the gospel according to Dr. Sears, where it sounds like, given a choice, babies would rather sleep with their parents for ever and ever until they were fifteen. Leila certainly doesn't want to sleep next to us anymore though. For a while she did, but now she's far too grown up for that. I feel like I sleep more deeply now that I'm not always unconsciously aware of her in the bed. I'm still in tune with her, I just don't wake up every time she inhales.