Stay Put

As parents expect a newborn to get up a lot in the middle of the night, we even have them sleep in our bed for the first several months.  But once that child starts sleeping through the night, and in his or her own bed, we like to keep it that way. 

The older kids have all gone through phases of coming into our room in the middle of the night and/or wanting to sleep in our room.  Our policy is usually they can stay in our bed for 5 minutes and then have to go  back to their own bed.  Those 5 minutes sometimes really are just 1 or 2 minutes or if we fall back to sleep an hour or two.  Last winter, Caleb was coming into our room almost every night.  It was getting ridiculous so we bribed him.  If he stayed in his bed the whole night for 4 nights in a row he would get a toy prize.  It was amazing, he stopped coming into our room.  Sure, once in a blue moon he comes it, but it worked pretty well. 

Lucy has been our good nighttime sleeper for a while now.  While the boys would get up more consistently, Lucy once she was asleep stayed that way until morning.  Then August came.  She started coming in our room almost every night and multiple times a night (sometimes 4 times).  Getting up with Nellie, and then Lucy several time and sometimes Toby was not letting us sleep very well.  We decided we needed the same bribe, but added stickers.  She remembered that Caleb had to stay in bed for 4 night and was extremely excited about it.  Amazingly she has stayed in bed all night every since.  First thing each morning, she asked if she could get her sticker and then her prize.

Her prize was a Barbie doll.  Someone gifted us with a collection of Barbies.  We got rid of the worn ones, and the ones that look like new (except no box) have been gifts for her (Christmas, Birthday etc).  I chose one that was wearing a dress that looked a little like a dress she had so that they could match.  We ran several errands after taking Caleb to school that day and I let her bring her Barbie with her.  Usually they are not allowed bringing things with them so that I have less to keep track of, but special days call for special rules right?  Well as we were leaving one parking lot she showed me her doll and the head fell off! She was screaming.  Nellie was also creaming since she hates the car.  I told her I could fix it, but after further review a piece of the neck was cracked off and it was trashed.  I guess brittle plastic is what you get when you have an old doll.  Thankfully, I had a stash of dolls and was able to get her a new one, which she said she liked even better.