Bringing Up Bella Eveline

First Night in MY OWN room

Perhaps epic is a slight exaggeration, but it was a huge leap forward in Bella’s plan to move out of our bedroom and into her own.  As I have stated before, she’s only 4 months old, so I really don’t mind her sleeping in our bedroom.  Within arms reach.  Where I can hold her pacifier for her.  And I can hear her breathing.  She NEEDS her mommy!   Apparently this change will be traumatic for BOTH of us.  But, Dr. Amy said if we didn’t start this transition process now, it would become infinitely harder the longer we wait.  She also said it should only take 3 days, which is great because I am not the most patient person on this planet.  So, on my birthday and at the close of a fun Disney weekend, we decided to give it the “old college try.”

After bathtime and a yummy bottle, we carried our sleeping beauty upstairs to her room and gently placed her in her crib.  She looked so tiny and alone in there, it made my heart sink.  Keith and I gave her a bunch of kisses and some quiet encouragement and walked gingerly out of her dark bedroom to our own.  I couldn’t help but start to cry at the thought of my precious peanut down the hall all by herself.  I also couldn’t keep my eyes off the baby monitor to see how she was doing.  We even bought the fancy one with night vision!  But we did not need the monitor to hear her when she started crying about 45 minutes after going to bed.  It was a loud, gut-wrenching cry and we had to show major restraint to keep from swooping in to soothe and cuddle her.  I even had to pull the bed covers over my head, otherwise, I would have caved in!  Bella cried for 20 LONG, awful minutes and then fell back to sleep.  At first, the sudden silence scared me, but after confirming she was ok (my hand on a moving set of ribs), I went back to bed.  She repeated this cycle about 3 more times, each crying period shorter and shorter.  We made it all the way from midnight to 8am!!  Keith and I barely slept and are exhausted today, but we held our ground and did not bring her back into our bedroom.

I know this is all part of “the process,” but listening to her cry is simply heartbreaking.  I don’t want our daughter to ever feel scared, ever feel alone or ever think mommy and daddy wouldn’t do everything in the world to make her boo-boos go away!   This is only going to take 3 days.  That’s what I keep telling myself.  I guess you will have to ask me in a few days where Bella is sleeping!