Just interested - do you reckon she would have done this anyway?

[Daffodilly]

I'm just gobsmacked. When DD (now aged 1 yr) was quite little we spent night after night trying to convince her to go to bed in the evening (and I mean anywhere from 7 - 10PM). She fought it and we spent hours rocking, ssshhing, patting, up and down stairs... you get the picture.

Tonight and last night she drank half of her milk then very clearly pointed at her cot as if to say "I'd like to go to bed now thanks"! Then promptly lay down and went to sleep.

I'm not complaining and no doubt it won't last. But it got me wondering, would she have reached this point anyway or did all out efforts to "teach" her to go to bed actually make any difference?

I think you are probably right. Wish I'd known it at the time and relaxed a bit. Enjoy your time with DD sleeping on your lap - as long as you can still type or use the remote!

I have noticed that amongst all the babies who were born at a similar time to dd (now 18 months), they all seem to do similar things at similarish times. They all go through similar phases at one time or another. All this despite the wildly differing parenting styles amongst the people I know.