Sleepy Bear.

Meet Sleepy Bear.  Sleepy Bear is very small, about the size of my hand.  She has tiny little eyes that you can hardly see through her tousled fur and tiny little ears on the sides of her head that make her look like a baby bear cub.  Sleepy Bear was given to us by our good friends Ginny and Paul when Haven was born back in April.  Of course, Haven was a newborn and had no interest in little bears, so Sleepy Bear quickly took her place among Sonja's many toys and ended up buried in a toy bin.  She would make an occasional appearance when Sonja would bring every single one of her plush toys out of the bin and scatter them across the house, but besides that, Sleepy Bear was kind of lost in the crowd.


When I smartened up as a Mom with two kids and little time, I realized I couldn't fall into the old habits that had perpetuated and exacerbated Sonja's bad sleeping habits and so I started Haven on the dreaded Sleep Training.  I had never sleep-trained Sonja because frankly, I was scared to.  I know now that I didn't give Sonja enough credit; I didn't think she could learn to fall asleep on her own.  Thus began a year-and-a-half of Sonja in our bed, me sleeping on a tiny mattress in Sonja's room, then Peter sleeping on the same horrible, tiny mattress in Sonja's room, all to help her fall asleep and stay asleep.  She always needed to be touching us, usually running her fingers over an arm, so we'd sleep on the mattress on the floor with an arm in her bed.  Yikes.  Sonja sleeps just fine now, but still uses a soother at naptime and bedtime.  I knew I did not want to go through all of this again, so I sucked it up and trusted that Haven could learn to fall asleep with my help (my help usually involves letting her work things out on her own and not running to her the minute she makes the slightest sound).


I also knew that I didn't want Haven to be as reliant on a soother as Sonja had become, and the book I was reading suggested eliminating the soother and giving Baby something in its place: a blanket, a plush toy, whatever.  It was bedtime, Haven was crying, I had taken away her soother, Peter was working, Sonja was running around doing her pre-bedtime energy blitz, I was stressed beyond belief that my baby was crying and I needed something, anything to give her to distract her.  I dumped out Sonja's toy bin, knowing that she would protest giving any of her toys to the baby.  Sonja vetoed a couple choices and I was starting to lose my cool, then she suddenly turned her attention away for a moment.  I spotted and grabbed little Sleepy Bear and left the room without Sonja noticing.


Every time I put Haven to bed awake to fall asleep on her own, I gave her Sleepy Bear.  I wasn't sure if Haven would love the bear or end up hating the bear.  Sleepy Bear is always left in Haven's bed; she is not a regular toy and is reserved strictly for bedtime.  One day when we were playing, I took Sleepy Bear out of the bed and gave her to Haven to see her reaction.  Haven squealed with happiness and grabbed the bear and I knew that she loved her Sleepy Bear.  Thank goodness.  Now when I put Haven to bed, she eagerly grabs Sleepy Bear and starts chewing on her nose.  I sometimes hear her jabbering away to her precious little bear as she goes to sleep.  


Oh, how I love you Sleepy Bear.  I owe you big time.