Today Kate was up a little earlier than usual and neither one of us were the perkiest we’ve ever been. I was tired and kept trying to fall asleep on the couch (only to be woken by a child yelling that the cartoon had ended, turn another one on, mom! Not that one! Another one!), and Kate, in between yelling at me, was kind of whiny.

By 10:30 she was really whiny, but didn’t want to eat, didn’t want a sippy, didn’t want to sit with me. She doesn’t take her nap until noon or so, so that didn’t really cross my mind… until she tugged on my hand, ran down the hall to her bedroom, and pulled me over to her crib. I picked her up to judge the situation and she, figuring she got her point across, laid her head on my shoulder with a little sigh and went all limp-noodle on me – her sign for “I’m going to sleep now, night night.” I put her in her crib, expecting her to jump up and yell at me. Instead she rolled over and grabbed her Violet bear. I left and closed the door. There was not a peep.

I scratched my head. Did my toddler just ASK to be put down for an early nap??

So I took the opportunity to sneak into my bedroom and crawl into my bed for a nap, too. We slept for 3 hours.

It’s kind of unbelievable that this is the same kid who two weeks ago was screaming fits at me every time I put her in her crib, even if she was fully asleep when I layed her down. Now she’s back to being happy as a clam in there, and when she wakes up and yells to call me I don’t walk in to a hysterical baby, I find her sitting playing music on her Violet, holding her pacis… and when she sees me she gets up and dances for a few minutes while I clap.

I’m also working on night-weaning her (again). Being pregnant and tired and sick I really can’t do the 3am wake-up every single night when there is really no reason for it at all, just habit. So the last few nights when she woke up I went in to hug her, cuddle her, rock her, and put her back in her crib. I can’t say she’s impressed with this change, but she falls back asleep within 15 minutes… and then sleeps the rest of the night through. I’m really hoping after another day or two she’ll stop waking up at 3am!