You Don't Even Know How Good You Have It

My neighbor, and friend, called me the other morning to ask a question. She wanted to know how I got my older daughter into a big girl bed. My daughter has been in a big girl bed since 15 months. When I found out I was pregnant again, I thought to myself that she'd only have a short period in the crib before we had to move her out...then we found out it was twins...and for some reason this really stressed me out. Not only would we need her crib, but we'd need another one too and for some reason that put more pressure on me to get her out of her crib. So at 15 months I converted her crib into a toddler bed and at 19 months, I moved her into a queen sized bed because it is what we already had. I wasn't going to buy her a new bed when I needed to buy another crib and quite frankly another of a lot of things we already had, ie: a stroller, car seat, etc...So my 2 year old sleeps in a queen sized bed!

Well, lately she has been sleeping on her floor. I can't quite figure it out. When my friend called to ask about converting her 2 year old into a toddler bed, I told her what I did. I read and rocked my daughter until she was just sleepy enough I could lay her down without her getting up. If she woke in the middle of the night, she still called for me to come and get her as if she couldn't get out of the bed! Then I started laying her down awake and sat in her room in her rocking chair until she was pretty much out. Then I started to lay her awake and stand by the door and yell at her if I saw her lift her head from the pillow. If she ever got out of her bed in the night, she couldn't open the door so she would stand by it and knock until someone came to get her and put her back in bed. In any case it didn't take her very long and she transitioned into her queen bed very easily.

I told my friend the problem I have now is that she wakes up in the middle of the night and turns on her light and starts playing. Well she plays so quietly that we don't hear her on the monitor and have no idea she is up. She falls asleep on the floor and does the same thing in the morning; she wakes and stays in her room playing! This is when my friend exclaimed, "You don't even know how good you have it do you?"

"Really?" I thought, I have it good? She said that it must be so nice she doesn't wake me at night or early in the morning. Well, yes, I guess you could look at it that way...or if she did wake me, at least I'd be able to put her back to bed. Since she doesn't wake us, we have no idea how long she's been awake at night or in the morning. And I am up all night with two other little ones who still like to wake every 3 hours to eat...and different hours at that!

When I start to see the sun rise in the morning and I've been up most the night with my twin 3 month olds I start to feel the anxiety coming. Another day with no sleep. My 2 year old comes out of her room around 8am and since she has been up for who knows how long she is an absolute pill. She is needy and repeatedly says, "momma, hold me". Well, I'm holding two other babies. So it's not beyond me to tell her she needs to go to bed at 8:00 and let her take a nap until 10:00am. This is why I don't have it so good just because she plays in her room by herself!

I took the light bulbs out of her room thinking if she couldn't turn her light on she wouldn't play. Well, I was wrong. Actually, what she started doing was getting out of her bed, opening her door, walking across the house - in the dark - and coming into our room, climbing into our unusually high bed and getting in between me and my husband. It would be too late before we noticed she was there! What two year old has enough guts to walk through a dark house by themselves in the middle of the night? Either my husband or I would go and put her back in her bed. Now I keep a latch on her door so she can't open it more than 3".

Yes, I lock her in her room at night. I've gotten in the habit of checking on her when the babies wake up. I go in her room and if she is asleep on the floor, I scoop her up and put her back in bed. If she's awake, I threaten to "spank" her if she gets out of bed again. So, she doesn't want a spankin so she stays in bed and can reach all her books if she leans over the side. Then I threaten to spank her if I catch her reading again. Who spanks there kid for reading? Well, I do! If she's reading in the middle of the night!

She's a cutie pie. She is so sweet. I just wish she'd stop getting up and playing at night. My friend doesn't even know how hard I've got it!