Now I lay me down to sleep

Abigael, as she fell asleep on the couch tonight....This blog should probably be called "All the things you're NOT supposed to do with your kids to get them to sleep." In a long list of things that will probably come back and bite us in the butt, we've been letting Abigael fall asleep on the couch at night instead of in her own bed. After she's sound asleep, we move her and she blissfully sleeps until at least 4:30am. When we made the decision to move her to the "big girl bed" after the night of the great escape, we struggled for many, many nights to get her to stay in bed long enough to go to sleep. We asked, we were stern, we gave in, we threatened, it was just way too stressful and not working. One night after an hour of fighting to get her to stay in her room (let alone her bed), we gave in and let her lay down on the couch. Within fifteen minutes she was out like a light. Thus began our ritual over the last couple of weeks. A snack (usually a couple of cookies), some milk, and then, curled up in a blanket, she watches TV with us until she drifts off. Some nights it takes an hour or so, but others, like tonight, she's passed out within two minutes. I started to become a little concerned that we might be starting another bad habit. My fears were laid to rest last weekend when she came up to me around naptime and said "I tired. Abigael need to go to bed." She headed to her room, crawled into bed, asked me to "make it dark" and went to sleep. WHAT?! I couldn't believe this was my child and I couldn't have been happier. So, I'm not worried. From the sleepless days as an infant to the co-sleeping so mommy could get some sleep to moving to the crib to finally going to sleep on her own, we've run the course on all the bad habits. And each one we've overcome when she was ready. She'll get there eventually. In the meantime, it's nice to have a little peace in an otherwise crazy house.