Being Mamma Bear

To read Part 2, click here.

🏁 10.03.2020 – 10.03.2021 • One year since we moved back upstairs + How we helped our (then) 3.5 year old Transition from sleeping with us to sleeping in her own room, on her own bed.

Today marks one year of us saying f*ck it to the status of our home renovations and moving back anyway. Today also marks one year of Laddoo sleeping on her own bed (on most nights these days, anyway.) And as much as life changed almost immediately after we moved back, I felt it was important to acknowledge this day, because it was a milestone for all of us, because even Sandeep and I slept on a baby-free bed for the first time in 3.5 years, without waking up to tend to someone or being kicked in the gut (or ribs).

Last year, March 10 was also Holi and my mom said it was a good day to start sleeping in the house again. So we spent the entire day setting both bedrooms up (everyone else took the day off because of Holi, so we had the house to ourselves). I swept and mopped the floors of both bedrooms myself, we opened up the IKEA mattresses for our bed as well as Laddoo’s, Laddoo had a gala time jumping on both beds alternately, we put on fresh sheets and were ready to start living here again.

I have wanted to share this story for so long and today’s as good a day as any.

My mom said we could go upstairs any time after 9:30 pm (or 9 pm, I don’t really remember). But Laddoo’s bedtime was 7:30 🙈 So we put her to bed in the rented flat downstairs, where she had been used to sleeping for the past 3 months or so, and when the muhurat was right, we carried her in our arms, got into the lift, came upstairs, and tucked her in.

And she stayed there ALL NIGHT.

Now that night, could have been a fluke. She also stayed asleep the night after. And the night after. It was only on the third or fourth night that she walked into our room because she wanted to sleep with us.

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How we helped prepare Laddoo for the Transition

1. We spoke to her about it all the time while the renovation was going on, which is around 3 months. We made it sound exciting for her – she’s going to get her own room, her own bed, how she’s a big girl, etc.
2. We involved her in the process, as much as we could involve an almost-3.5 year old. She knew something was happening in our house. In addition, we also showed her the 3D renders of what her finished room would look like. When we ordered her bed and sheets, we showed it to her on the website. We didn’t offer a choice, but she knew it was happening.
3. On March 10, 2020, we spent the entire day setting up her room with her so that if she did wake up in the night, the surroundings would be familiar.
4. That night, even though she fell asleep in the rented house downstairs, we’d told her that when she’d wake up, she’d magically be in her own room and her own bed.

And this was one of the few times in my life where things went the way I’d planned. It was all well until December, meaning she used to sleep in her bed all through the night 8 or 9 nights out of 10.

Then in December 2020 the sound of an owl 🦉 who hooted from 3-4 AM for an entire week, started to scare her and she walked into our room every night because she wanted to sleep with us.

Until then, there was no fear as such. As of today, still sleeps in her room but now, because of this pregnancy and my belly, her dad sleeps on the floor in her room because she says she “needs a human” next to her. Hopefully she’ll forget about the owl and the fear will go away soon 🤞🏼

In another post, I’ll talk about what precautions we take for her safety since she started sleeping by herself. But if you have any other questions about a child sleeping on their own, ask away in the comments. 👇🏼

To read Part 2, click here.