The Parent Check

For a while Rachel was rather "sensitive" about being left alone. Apparently she's over that now because she's fine in her crib all through the night, but before she'd wake up pretty much every half hour--it was brutal. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have the baby in bed with me than be woken up every half hour with her wailing in the next room. Call me crazy.

So Rachel's been sleeping in our bed. I would go in and lie down with her while she fell asleep or until she was almost asleep and then leave her while I finished up some of my business for the day. Who am I kidding...I still often do that.

I put pillows all around her so that she can't roll out of bed and then sneak off quietly down the hall.

She's been better about sleeping by herself but she used to have this signature move that Andrew named "the Parent Check." From a deep sleep her eyes will crack open. She'll desperately look left, look right, look left, look right, just to see if mom and dad are really there. Then she'll fall immediately back to sleep after grabbing our finger or arm or shirt or hair--something, anything to assure her that we haven't abandoned her.

It was really rather humorous. Sometimes we were able to fool her with pillows. As you can see in the picture below, she performed "the Parent Check" before Andrew and I went to bed. She grabbed onto the pillows on either side of her for comfort. Apparently they pass for parents.

Rachel's method of taking up the whole entire bed

She still likes to grab onto things while she sleeps, so we always make sure to give her a stuffed toy when we put her to bed alone. Hopefully that will be all she needs for a while--she's a hard person to sleep with. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle all night long!

I guess I deserve it. I slept with my mom until kindergarten--when I heard her talking to a fellow student's mom about how I still wouldn't sleep in my own bed. I was mortified; how embarrassing!