Thursday, December 18, 2008

Middle of the Night Visitor

You know how the Pumpkin is not a good sleeper and needs us in the middle of the night? You know how we moved her to a twin bed? You know how she is very capable in the physical department? Well combine all that, and you get our newest sleep development.

The Pumpkin is now getting up out of her bed, opening her bedroom door, walking down the hall (we are VERY careful to make sure the gates at the stairs are closed these days), walking into our room, climbing up the stairs to our bed (they are stairs for the dog, who has a bad back and we have a very high bed), and into our bed with us.

I personally prefer this, because then (ideally) we don't have to get out of bed. Some nights, she climbs in, goes right back to sleep and sleeps most of the night! Last night she climbed in around 12:30 and slept until almost 7:00!

Of course, most nights she is fidgeting, kicking, flailing and constantly moving, as is her way. The trouble with her in our bed is that when she is moving and kicking, she is keeping both of us awake. So that part sucks. And sometimes one of us just ends up taking her into her bed and sleeping with her there.

Also, Londo isn't sure he prefers her just coming into our room, because it startles him. He said that he wakes up thinking that the toddler isn't where he left her/she is supposed to be, and it freaks him out! Plus the stairs she climbs to get in bed is on his side of the bed, so seeing her head pop up or suddenly feeling her on him is a surprise. I almost always wake up when I hear her shut her bedroom door behind her or our door behind her (she likes to shut doors). So lately, I've been waking Londo up when I hear her come into our room to give him a heads up, which seems to help.

I know eventually we will have to lead her back into her room, where she will hopefully go back to sleep by herself. But right now, with it being winter and me pregnant and her going through a tough phase, this is just easier.

So the easy way wins out again. The toddler may visit us in the middle of the night as needed for the next few months.

Is it any wonder why I'm always so exhausted?

9 comments:

-goofydaddy said...

so cute.

- Dana said...

Aria can't open her door yet from the inside...it gets a little stuck. Which is probably good because she romes around her room a little before she goes to bed some nights. Haha, we find her sleeping with all her tights...she's silly. I'm sure there will be a day that she'll get out and I'll probably have a similar reaction to Londo. That is pretty cute that she crawls in bed with you though.

I'm Not Skippy said...

Bad habit.

Becoming Mommy said...

Fortunately Sasha is still in his crib and doesn't seem to realize he could climb out (he climbs the baby gates, which are EXACTLY the same).
I feel for you, baby in the bed usually means headbutts to the face.

BrooklynGirl said...

Okay, so I know this will sound like the Voice of Doom, but my son is still doing this and he's almost 3.5.

If there's one thing I could do over about my parenting life, it's that: I would have been more hard core about dealing with his sleep issues when he was younger.

AmyinMotown said...

Maggie started this just recently. It's starting to wane -- I just realized that lately it's been more often than not she stays in her own bed. I think she started out having bad dreams and then it just became habit. She used to be a good sleeper--thinking of the days we could put her down at 7 and be pretty much done with parenting until 7 am the next day makes me want to cry.

Anonymous said...

Very cute story.

Over Xmas we are goign to put Zoe in hr big bed too, but I want to see how she naps first in her brother's bed, before making the big move. As I type, she is snoozing in Noah's bed for the first time and was excited to go in a 'proply bed' as she says. I do worry about the middle of the night wakings (that are still frequentish). Fortunately like Dana's LO, she con't reach the door knob.

Shellie said...

Oh, no. We are having this problem lately with a twin and how do you stop it if half the time you don't realize it till you get up in the morning? It takes a lot to rouse me after decades of sleep deprivation. I'm so encouraging, aren't I?

Wineplz said...

oh...we had this with Gavin for the longest time. It also started while I was pregnant. Eventually push came to shove--the big belly won out and we had to walk Gavin back to his bed nightly.

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