And she sleeps.

I hope I am not jinxing it, but I will declare it official. Ellie has been sleeping through the night and going to bed like a big girl in her own room. All of a sudden, one night she decided that she would go to sleep in her bed instead of falling alseep with me and CJ. Since she was born, she always fell asleep with us. It was our bedtime routine. At night, we would all go upstairs and after bathtime, she would lay down between CJ and myself and we would watch TV together. Ok, so maybe we should have been reading a book, but it was our routine and we enjoyed it. She would snuggle between the two of us and just drift off to sleep. Then, after a little while, I would bring her to her bed for the night. On most nights she would sleep through the enire night, but then there were other nights when she would wake up. On some nights she would cry for a few minutes and then go back to sleep. Other nights, we would have to go in there and calm her down. That usually meant bringing her back to bed with us.

Then, a few weeks ago, she kept tossing and turning when she was falling asleep with us. She was whining and not very comfortable or relaxed. For that matter, CJ and I weren't very comfortable or relaxed either. So, rather than letting her fall asleep with us, we brought her to her bed. We turned on her little Care Bear lamp and even started the humidifier in her room. (It gets kind of stuffy upstairs.) Then I laid her down on her pillow, handed her blankie to her and gave her a cup of water. She snuggled up and started wimpering as I walked out of the room. She cried for a few seconds, but that was it. She slept through the night. The next night, when she started to get fussy, we did the same thing. Night light, humidifier, blankie, cup (and this time a little book, too), but a little less wimpering. Slowly, we started a new routine. Now, she is in bed by 8 pm, she waves to me as I close her door and even says "night night" or "bye bye" as I leave.

What a smart little girl I have.