Lying to my child seems to be working

We're trying to wean Zach from needing us to lay down beside his crib and hold his hand as he falls asleep. This was taking upwards of an hour sometimes! It will funny, though, when Jean-Paul would fall asleep on Zachary's bedroom floor and I could hear him snoring through the ceiling in the family room.

Now, we did create this situation by allowing it to happen and continue. "Accidental Parenting" as The Baby Whisperer would call it. We had even gone so far as to have a blanket and pillow beside the bed so we'd at least be comfortable while doing this. (I really didn't mind too much on most nights, but sometimes it was a REAL pain. I know this time of life is short - and it is bittersweet to be giving that up, but we needed to get back to a bit of "normalcy", whatever the hell that is - or will ever be!)

I stumbled upon a trick a few nights ago and it seems to be working. It works best when only one of us is home for bedtime, but we've done it successfully when we're both home as well. I/Jean-Paul sing Twinkle, Twinkle (as we always have) while putting him to bed, say 'night 'night and tell him "Mommy's/Daddy's just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back, sweetie" and sneak downstairs. He usually falls asleep waiting for us to return. The last couple nights it's been done without any crying or calling out on his part! Yay!!

Again though, it's a bit bittersweet. There's nothing like the feeling of having someone feel so secure with you around that just your being there makes all the difference in the world while they're falling asleep.

I love bringing him into bed with me if he wakes at night, but I know I "shouldn't" - and don't very often for that very reason. Don't want to start any more "Accidental Parenting" "bad" habits... That's a lot of quotation marks for one blog entry!