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Monday, January 30, 2012

My Toddler’s Taken Over My Bed

Gianna has been sleeping in her “big girl” bed since the summer.

Gianna figured out that she could get out of bed herself sometime this fall.

Gianna started actually getting out of bed and either coming upstairs to play or coming into our bed around Christmas.

This past week she has been waking up at 4 or 5am, coming in our room, climbing over me and getting to “her” pillow between Mike and I. Leaving Mike and I with about 10 and 6 inches of bed space, respectively.

Last night she woke up calling for me saying her bed “falled off” – all of her sheets and blankets were on the floor and homegirl was not getting back in that bed.  She ended up in my bed and I think I only had about 3 1/2” of space to sleep. And got a nice little *massage* in the back with Gianna’s ever moving feet. Not only is Gianna a restless sleeper, she is loud! She makes so much noise when she sleeps it actually infuriates me to a certain point.  And she takes up like the ENTIRE bed somehow. I know she’s tall – but damn! She grows to 7’ tall when she is sleeping – I swear!

I have found her on the couch before in the morning – when I asked her what she was doing upstairs by herself, she said “just waiting to use Daddy’s iPad so I can watch a movie”. Oh well, if that’s all…..!

I have NO Idea what is going on with her.  If she’s having bad dreams, needs some extra love or whatever. 

She is very clearly tired – if I thought she was truly ready to be awake at 5am I would figure out a way to suck it up and just get up with her.  But she can hardly keep her eyes open!  Trying to put her in her own bed after a little while ends in screaming and you guys – it is 5am and I am TIRED! I just don’t have the energy to argue with her at that time in the morning, lame excuse? Probably but totally the truth.

She knows she can’t play until the sun wakes up. she knows she can’t come upstairs by herself.  How in the hell do I get her to stay in her own bed until Mommy and Daddy wake up?

Not that I don’t totally dig it when she snuggles up in my arm and pulls my hand across her so she can hold my finger – because really, I will sleep on 3 1/2” of bed for that. Maybe not every single night, but still.

Our queen bed is not big enough for the 3 of us, especially when the smallest one takes up, by FAR the most amount of space.

Help?!

andreasignature2

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had this exact same problem with Brecken shortly after j was born. I don't know if it was because of the change (likely) or if it was just a phase he would have gone through regardless, but homeboy would. not. stay. in. his. bed. He would show up bedside sometime halfway through the night and end up between us. He sleeps just like G apparently, none of us were sleeping. Was awful. We finally resorted to a sticker chart. When he got a week's worth of stickers he got to pick out a "digger" at the store. When he got a month's worth, he was supposed to pick an outside toy. (We were desperate.) We only needed the chart for 10ish days and then it finally clicked.

Good luck, it's horrible. Adorable but horrible.

Anonymous said...

I've personally never had this problem with my girl, savannah. but i have heard of this product:

http://www.amazon.com/Stoplight-Sleep-Enhancing-Groovy-Butterflies/dp/B002TKLN3W.

I guess it is kinda like a toddler alarm clock. the light stays red until whatever time you set it for, and when it turns green she will know that it is ok to get up. the person i heard about this from said it worked for her toddler. looks kinda fun!

Aimee

Mazzy said...

We kept L's doors shut and put knob covers on them until just recently. Though, she never really tested them because I made it CLEAR to her that getting out of bed was direct disobedience. She is not a limit tester, though, so I cannot say this would work for every child.

For Christmas, her grandma got her a Tot Clock (check amazon) and she ADORES it. It turns blue for bedtime and nap time and yellow for awake time. In the mornings, I'll hear her yell down "IT'S YELLOW!!!!!" and then she appears on the stairs. Potty training does make all of this a bit more tricky, of course, and some people just cannot fathom the idea of locking a child in their room, but I think I'd lose my mind if my kid just showed up in our room one night. CREEPY!

Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Your twin sister climbed into my bed every morning until she was ummm.....19 and I am positive she would still do it today if she could! She just wants to snuggle with her mommy!

Joy@WDDCH said...

Zoë is 2 years old and we put a baby gate in the doorway to her room (we can still shut the door as well because it's a wide door frame). She stays safe in her room (instead of wandering around) and isn't up all throughout the night. I already sleep with my 4-month-old son in my queen-sized bed (and my hubby) or I wouldn't care if she slept with me. But this one baby takes up half the bed!

Rebecca said...

I've heard about the baby gate at the door working very successfully, but it seems kind of harsh as anything but a last resort.

We have those sleep-to-wake owl nightlight/alarm clocks. Those work VERY well. The Crazies never come out of their room before 7:05.

Also, have you tried the coins? I'm not sure if she's into money yet or even has a piggy bank, but we leave three coins on their dresser/shelvers/whatever at night. If we have to go in for something silly, we take a coin. Whatever is left in the morning, they can bank. It worked well with Hailey calling us in to tell us that her kitty cat sneezed...annoying.