As daddy always says to me, "You have to train him to sleep by himself so that he wouldn't come looking for you in the middle of the night. You have to let him grow up and learn to be independant and sleeping by himself is one of the ways". Well, well....his words never entered seriously into my brain because I always prefer to accompany him to bed so that he will fall asleep faster and I can have more of my own free time after he has gone to bed. Plus, at the end of the day, I always have separation anxiety with my boy. That's why I prefer to stay with him until I'm sure and comfortable knowing that he has fallen asleep. But in this way, I always ended up with him coming over to our room looking for me in the middle of the night (sometimes a few times a night) because he wakes up occasionally only to find me missing from his room. Unless I sleep with him throughout the night, or else I will have sleepless nights because I keep on getting up whenever he comes over to our room. I'm used to this routine of accompanying him to bed and going over to his room to sleep in the middle of the night if he comes over to find me, until recently......
I really really got so tired 2 weeks ago. Every single day during that week, I was really very weak and tired. So I decided once and for all to train him to sleep independantly. It's a little hard at the beginning as he kept on checking to make sure I was there. Of course, I told him during bedtime that mummy will be in mummy's room and you have to sleep by yourself. As usual, he asked me to sleep with him but I firmly said NO. But at the same time I convinced him by telling him that I will be next door, nearby to him. Communication is important. You have to let him know that he has to learn to sleep by himself and at the same time you are just nearby and that he is not alone.
2 weeks has gone and he has been sleeping by his own since. Of course, I'll make it more easier by reading him a book and daddy always play with him before bedtime. I even sing songs to him, give him a kiss and wish him goodnight without fail every night before I departed from his room. And I always left both doors of the rooms ajar. This way, he feels secure knowing that I'm just nearby. Now, the frequency of him coming to look for me in the middle of the night has reduced. Most of the time, he sleeps through the night. This I believe has improved both his and my sleeping conditions. Both of us have less disturbed sleeps. I know daddy must be saying that we should have started this earlier, right? :P
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