I am the old woman wispering hush

We have tried to move Huxley into Turing's room. Our house is small (840 square feet) and there are two bedrooms. Period. Huxley is going to start pulling himself up, soon, and needs to be able to sleep in the crib, not the side-car on our bed. Fortunately, the crib and the toddler bed do actually fit in the little bedroom. The nice layout puts Huxley by the window so he can pull down the curtain . . . I guess we'll be in the more cramped layout for another year or so. But everything fits.

Huxley has never been much of a cuddler. He likes to be around people, certainly. And adults are good for holding and walking around, but not for snuggling. Recently, he has been half-snuggling while sleeping, though, after he comes to our bed in the middle of the night. Warm bodies are nice!

Huxley will fall asleep with someone in the room - singing is good - and scream if left alone. I wouldn't want to be left to the wolves, either. This complicated bedtime as Turing has been able to fall asleep by himself for a while. Turing also gets very upset whenever Huxley so much as rolls over, thus upsetting Huxley. So, I end up standing in their bedroom for 15 or 20 minutes at bedtime keeping everyone calm enough to fall asleep.

These 15 minutes are long, but not impossibly long. And certainly shorter than trying to sneak out of the room early, have Huxley pull out his nuk, have Turing yell that Huxley pulled out his nuk, have Huxley start screaming, and then have Turing start screaming. And I know they will figure it out eventually . . . Huxley will learn about object permanence and Turing will get used to Huxley sleeping in there. And Huxley will stop waking up in the middle of the night to nurse and sleep with us. And we'll miss our babies.

I know this situation would not be acceptable to many people, now, as little kids are supposed to fall asleep on their own and right fast . . . but whenever those 15 minutes seem really long, I remember in Goodnight Moon (published 1943?) with the toddler bunny saying goodnight to all the objects. If you look at the clocks in the book, it takes that toddler an hour and 15 minutes from getting into bed to falling asleep. Admittedly, the "old woman whispering hush" has her knitting to keep herself sane. Maybe I'll try that.