Cheryl's own space

We have been training Cheryl to sleep on her own bed for the past 3 nights.

Actually, it's my fault. Daddy and I will play with Cheryl before she goes to bed and all three of us will lie in bed and sing songs or just have her tell us what she did for the day; bonding time for us three. Then C will kiss us good night and conveniently sleep along side us and fall asleep. I will usually wake up later and transfer her to her own bed after.

But Daddy and I thought it is not healthy for her to sleep with us all the time because she can get too needy and will not sleep unless we are around. So we embarked on this "uphill" task of training her. She will try numerous times to climb onto our bed and I will have to get up and move her back and sometimes, this ding-dong between the beds can happen up to as many as 20 times in a night. The first night was tough but Cheryl soon discovered that she could trick me; she would ask me to make her milk (she would be in her own bed) and then I would step outside to prepare her drink. And when I got back, she would be lying on our bed and pretending to be asleep.

I would have to say aloud "Oh Cheryl is sleeping! Mummy is going to pour away the milk" and pretend to walk out of the room. C would then sit up and protest and I would tell her to go back to her own bed. This usually works (keeping my fingers cross).

Tonight will be the 4th night so we are hoping that by the end of the week, she will have no problem sleeping on her own.

Update: It was only slightly better; I didn't have to carry her to her bed that many times. But this morning, Daddy told me this: Cheryl was sleeping very closed to Daddy when I came back into the room because she told Daddy "Cheryl sleep with Daddy, Mummy no space."

She must have thought that by giving me space on my side of the bed, I would allow her to sleep with us. Ha ha ... again its my "fault" because I always tell her it's because Daddy and Mummy have no space when she is on the bed with us. So can I blame her? No wonder she kicked up such a ruckus when I lifted her off our bed but mid-way to her bed, she burst out in chuckles as if knowing that her scheme to find her way back to sleeping with us has failed.