In Her Own Bed

We finally got Angelee to sleep in her own bed.  Not getting enough sleep is enough to make a person a tad loopy.  Not enough sleep for a couple of days can produce grouchiness.  Try two months.  Nay, try two months AFTER being on a perpetual low-sleep diet due to twin babies.  We had to sleep with her when her head was so delicate.  But now her brain was protected all the way around by nice, strong skull.  She didn't need us to pad her nighttime.  It was time for a change in sleeping arrangements.

Angelee's bed is a bunkbed with a single bed on top and a full-sized futon on the bottom (she sleeps on the bottom, of course).  The first time we put her on it, she looked so tiny on that big bed.  She makes full use of it: sleeping on one side, then the other, rolling to the top, curled up or spread-eagled - she is a wiggly one.  But after she was at the hospital, we folded it up to the futon since she wasn't using it.

I have put her down for naps on her futon-bed, and she sleeps there - but not willingly.  I had an idea the other day, and folded the bed back down.  As soon as she saw it, she ran over to it, jumped up, and excitedly cried, "Bed!"  Then she figured out that jumping on the lower bunk of a bunkbead is not a good idea.  Bonk.  When it was naptime, she got into bed quite willingly.  That night, Trent and I were nervous about how she would take sleeping by herself.  We were all worked up for a long night.

We put her in bed, tucked her in with the quilt Gram made and her fuzzy, pink crocheted "blankie."  I sang her a song, Daddy gave her a kiss, and we walked out and closed the door.  We both waited for the wailing.  Nothing.

We got ready for bed, blissfully without any "Angelinos."  Some of her favorites when our backs were turned were pulling the covers off our bed, poking the sleeping babies, squirting lotion on our pillows, turning the lamps on and off, and eating lip balm.  Really?  She's still not crying?  Is she breathing?  We gingerly peeked in her room, only to find her in the exact same position we had put her, a sweet toddler-sized sleeping beauty.  We celebrated by going to bed early.