Separation Anxiety

When I think of separation anxiety, I think of a toddler clinging to his mom, afraid to go somewhere without her.  However, I am the one experiencing this emotion at the moment!  Last night was the big night; we moved our big boy to his own crib in his own room.  This was a pretty big deal for me considering he's slept either ON me or right beside my bed for the last 146 days and I carried him for 9 months before that!  The excuses were running slim though, so with the arrival of his blackout curtains to help keep his room a little darker in the evening and morning, the moment had come. :-)

We've already established our evening routine, so at 7:00, Trey got his bath, and then we played and read for a while in his room.  By 8:00, he was ready to eat and fell asleep.  He took a little while to settle in, waking up a few times, but I got him back to sleep and nursed him one last time before I went on to bed.  At around 3:00, I heard him on the monitor and went in to check on him...wiiiiiiide awake.  He's only done that one other time, but this momma doesn't enjoy play time at 3 am!  He wanted to nurse, so I fed him while he tried talking to me and smacking me in the face.  I've discovered that avoiding eye contact is pretty helpful with a wakeful baby in the middle of the night, so I tried to not look at him.  We rocked a while longer, but although he had settled down, his eyes were still wide open.  I laid him down on his tummy in his crib and laid down in the floor.  After about 15 minutes of talking to himself and flopping around, he finally went back to sleep!  Smiley guy slept until 7:00 this morning!  I'm glad he transitioned well and that we did it before he was big enough to know the difference.

Sounds like he's woken up from his nap, so I guess I'll go release him from his baby jail! :-)