First time sleeping by herself

In the previous post, I talked about how Sasha's sleep patterns had gradually changed lately. When I thought about it, I realized that this might be my best opportunity to get Sasha to sleep on her own successfully.

Today, I tried to get her to sleep alone in her cosleeper. It's like a crib/playpen and it is in our bedroom so she will still be in the room with us.
I saw that she was getting tired, so I put her in the cosleeper. She cried. I knew she would. I sat next to her and rubbed her little belly to let her know mommy was still there for her. The hard part was keeping her dad from climbing the walls :) Once she calmed herself down, I took her out and nursed her until she was asleep. I put her back in the cosleeper but she woke right back up and cried a little in protest. I rubbed her belly again, and she rolled over onto her stomach. I thought she was going to start trying to crawl and stand, and thought we were through. But she put her head down, whimpered a little, and I gave her a back rub. I let her cry just a little more and she fell right asleep!
She slept alone in her cosleeper for a good 4-5 hours. She woke up, and I brought her in bed with me.
I consider this mission successful. I wanted to work on putting her to sleep in her cosleeper. I know this will take patience and work on our part. It will take a few days for her to understand what we are doing, for it to become part of her accepted routine. But if I keep at it, I can later work on helping her sleep longer. I don't mind bringing her back into bed after she's slept on her own for a few hours. Small steps.
Today I got to sleep by myself for a few hours. Too bad I couldn't fall asleep without her :(