When I got home and jumped right in to our night time routine with Naomi, Nadia wanted that we try and have her fall asleep herself in the crib - us monitoring of course. Nadia had been helping Naomi for the past few weeks to get used to self-soothing so that she can manage to fall asleep without being so dependant on us rocking her, or bouncing her. So we started after her last feeding of the day, dimming the lights like we always do, putting on some nice ambient music and the sounds of a rain forest to fill the room with calm. Naomi, at this point was changed, fed and pj's on. Everything a go! Because this is really my only time with her during the work week, I'm the one who normally puts her to sleep at night, and part of that fun is bouncing and rocking her to sleep because I get to hold her close. Last night however, we layed her in her crib, pacifier in mouth and I just stood watch. A little bummed that I couldn't hold her but what happened next was so amazing it was worth it. Not only was Naomi laying calmly, staring off into space with a wonderous gaze, but she quite literally putting up no fuss as she started to slowly fall asleep into the night. To put this in perspective, we quite literally have a production that goes on at night to get Naomi to sleep. It's not a bad thing, but it is a very calculated and sensitive thing to get done the right way so that we all benefit. We usually place her down in her crib after having rocked her almost to a full sleep. Sometimes this process is quick and sometimes it can take quite a while. This time, we placed her in her crib as she was still wide awake, albeit a tired wide awake. So I sat, I watched. About all I really did was put her pacifier back in her mouth which she spit out once or twice. About 20 silent minutes had passed of Naomi rubbing her eyes, turning her head back and forth a little bit, and at one point I swear she was holding the pacifier herself. Before I knew it, she had fallen into dream land. No fuss, no crying, no nothing. It was to date the proudest moment Nadia and I have shared for Naomi thus far. This was quite the big accomplishment for her.
As parents, this holds a special meaning. It wasn't just so much about her falling asleep without our help. It's about us picking up on recent ques that Naomi has been giving us, as if letting us know she is ready for certain kinds of independence. Last night was like watching a first glimpse of Naomi making a big decision for herself in her little world. She let us know that she wanted to do this on her own.
Remarkable.