Attachment parenting at night

Most of you know (whether you agree with our practices or not) that we generally cosleep and have generally avoided any "cry it out" when it comes to going to bed. My typical practice has been to take Elena to bed with me when I hit the sack around 9. This has worked quite well because
1. I go to bed relatively early (for an adult)
2. Elena doesn't need to be up at any particular time in the morning and can thus sleep in as late as she needs
3. In the past (when I didn't leave for work first thing in the morning) this gave me several hours un-interupted every morning to do whatever non-baby friendly tasks I wished. And I'm a morning person, so having this time in the morning suited me
4. This also gave erich several hours in the evening alone to do whatever he wished without me or the baby bugging him. This also suits him well. He needs regular alone time.

Lately (for perhaps six months or so), we have been altering this routine and encouraging Elena to fall asleep even when there's no one sleeping next to her. (Previously, whenever she needed to go to bed and no parent was also going to bed, we rocked with her until she fell asleep and then laid her down. But lately she has been requesting to "rock for a little bit" and then will just go lie down.) We've been working on this because 1. due to my dissertation, I have been needing to stay up past her (and my!) bedtime and 2. Erich has been getting frustrated and worried with "will she ever go to sleep alone?" thoughts. Erich was actually tempted to just switch to cry-it-out, not realizing that there are intermediate options (because he hadn't read the Sears Sleep Book).

So lately, we've been using one of the options mentioned in the Sears Sleep Book. It involves putting the kid to bed (or even laying down with them for a bit, though we don't do this much anymore) and essentially saying "you stay here, and I'll check on you in a little bit." Then you go in every five minutes (or an interval that works for the kid) and "check," saying each time (unless they really know the drill) that you're coming back in just a little bit. Until you come back and they're asleep. Or, for me, I come back and it's just time for me to hit the sack myself (Elena still sleeps with me because Erich strongly prefers sleeping on the bunk bed by himself... something about liking the mattress for his back...).

This has worked surprisingly well, and had almost no "adjustment pains." She seemed really ready for the change.

Anyway, the whole reason this came to mind to write about is something Elena said last night. Erich was off playing games with the Griffins for the evening. Elena was sitting with me a bit before going to bed (while I was working on my dissertation, of course). At some point, she seemed ready to lie down, so I suggested that she just head to bed to lie down and I would come check up on her "in a bit." She said "Papa checks up on me a lot."
I said, "Do you want me to check up on you a lot, too?"
"No. You just check up on me a little."

And, some 15 or 20 minutes later when I finally got around to checking up on her, she was fully alseep. That was that. Yet another example of how healthy kids tell us what they need--and as she grows, she does this telling more and more verbally.