We're on this routine now where Andrea and I swap nights to put Val
down. Most nights it goes fairly smoothly, 20 minutes or less. Last
night she went down for me in like 5 minutes but tonight, she's really
giving Andrea the business.

She did get out of bed to poop in the potty, so it's not all bad. But I
feel the rising frustration and the creeping exhaustion that comes from
sitting there, waiting for her to fall asleep.

It's nights like those that make me wish that we could be the kind of
parents who, when she was little, forced her to cry it out and go to
sleep on her own. Those parents now just plunk their kids in bed,
trusting that they'll fall asleep. Sounds nice, so nice.

But then I think of her being so little both then and now, how well she
responded to being cuddled when she was little, how deeply she slept
between us all those months, how genuinely upset she gets when left
alone before she's asleep and I know that we have done right by Val,
even if it's harder for us.