2 YEARS & 2 MONTHS - 13 Sept. 2012

Last night we all 4 slept in the big bed all night for the first time! Liva and Laia have slept in their own beds since they were born, for the first 4 or 5 months they shared a bed and slept in our bedroom at night and in their own room for naps during the day. When they got too big to share a bed we moved them into their own room in separate beds. We only took them into our bed if they were sick, but even then the girls preferred sleeping in their own room with their sister. Ever since they have been big enough to make themselves understood, they have made it clear to us after 10-15 minutes in our bed that they want to go back to their own bed by pointing towards their room and saying the sister's name. Since we prefer not having them in our bed, it has never been a problem for any of us! :)
A few weeks after their 2-year birthday we removed one of the sides of their beds, so they no longer have bars on one whole side and can get in and out of bed as they please. A lot of the people I know with toddlers of a similar age did it much sooner, shortly after the child's first birthday. We just couldn't handle the thought of Liva and Laia being able to get of bed on their own, and kept postponing it. We were really worried we'd just end up paying in the end anyways, and eventually decided to just get it over with one weekend. To our huge surprise it went really well! The first 2-3 nights they got out of bed a few times, but nothing like what we had expected! They also fell out of bed once or twice the first 3-4 nights, but they don't fall far, and we have sheep-skin rugs for them to land on. They'd curl up on the rug and continue sleeping. After a couple of falls they started climbing back into bed on their own before we even made it upstairs after hearing the thump, and were asleep again by the time we got up. After the first week they completely stopped falling out of bed. They of course still get out of bed after we put the down for the night sometimes, especially Liva, but it's not every night, and it's not as bad as we had feared! For being only 2 years old they're doing really well! In the mornings they always come into our bed when they wake up, then we all snooze and cuddle for 15-30 minutes before getting up, a lovely start to the day!
But yesterday we were all sick! Albert and I had a fever and both felt horrible, Laia had a cough and was complaining about an earache, Liva was just generally not feeling good. We put the girls to bed around 18:30, by 21:00 we were in bed ourselves. About 1 hour later Laia started coughing and crying. We tried a few times to get her to fall back asleep in her own bed but eventually decided to take her into our bed, something we generally do when they aren't feeling well. Shortly after Liva must have realized she was on her own, because she came in with her pillow in her hand and her pacifier in her mouth. Without a word she threw her pillow on top of mine and lay down next to me, demanding blanket. Though Albert said, shortly before we all fell asleep, that they had to go back into their own beds after a while, we all had a decent night's sleep in the big bed. It was actually quite nice! :) Not something I would do every night, but I did enjoy us all lying together last night.