A bittersweet milestone...

After almost five years of sharing sleep with our babies, Joel and I now sleep almost the whole night in our bed...alone!

For Sam and Amelia, it was just time. We couldn't figure out how to comfortably fit all of us in our king sized bed anymore. When Jubilee first came home she would cry some at night and wake them up in our bed, so it started to be musical beds and we didn't really want that. We thought about different solutions, but in the end decided it was time to have them stop coming in our room halfway through the night. We also split them into two different rooms first and that helped tremendously! Nap times/bed times started going much easier! Then, honestly, it just kind of happened. We told them how much we have loved sleeping and snuggling with them for all of their life, but that we all weren't getting enough rest now, etc. etc. So, Sam just stopped from that night on! It was pretty crazy (and obvious that it was just the right timing)! Joel had been sleeping in the guest room with Amelia to keep her from coming in our room when she was sick, and I think that helped ease her out of coming in here. The first night he told her he would be sleeping in our room and she needed to stay in her room, it was pretty sad. She sobbed. Then I could hear her on the monitor and she was crying and praying, "God, please PLEASE let some grown up human come in here and snuggle with me. PLEASE!" Broke my heart! But she slept through that night and every night since. I think that has been about two weeks maybe? Anyway, I am SO thankful that it came to an end without a real struggle. What a gift! I can say without a doubt that neither Joel or I would ever change the decision we made to co-sleep with our children, challenging as it could be. What is sweeter to a parent or more comforting to a child than sleeping together (at least for us and for our little ones:)