I thought I'd share a little story about the sleep situation in our castle. As many of you know, we have a heck of a time getting Abbey to spend the whole night in her bed. It's pretty much impossible. She goes to sleep fine, but wakes around 2am and wants to come sleep with Scott and I. (With a father who gets up for work at 6am and a mom who is nearly 8 months pregnant, she doesn't get much resistance.)
Before resorting to the cry it out method, we thought we'd try a little good old fashioned bribery. :) The first night, we sat Abbey down and told her that if she spent the whole night in her bed alone, she would get a special princess treat the next day. Naturally, she was thrilled at the prospect of adding to her already considerable stash of princess goodies and promised to sleep in her bed all night. And she did! We rewarded her with a roll of princess stickers and congratulated ourselves on being so smart. Hey, $1.99 is a small price to pay for some stickers and a good night's sleep!
Fast forward to the next night. Same tactic, same promises from Abbey. Only this time it didn't go as smoothly when she awoke at 2am and Scott went up to put her back in bed. Here's the conversation that ensued:
Scott: Abbey, you have to go back to sleep in your own bed if you want to get a princess treat.
Abbey: I don't want to.
Scott: I know, but you really want more princess stuff, right?
Abbey: Hmmmm...I have a princess trike, some princess dolls and princess stickers. I think I have enough princess stuff. Let's go downstairs and sleep with mommy.
Damn!!! As Scott said, how do we argue with that? I guess it's time for plan B, since our 3-year-old already has more powers of logical reasoning than her parents.
In other news...we took Abbey to a sibling class at the hospital last night. It was a huge hit! She learned to help put a diaper on, swaddle the baby, brush his hair, and put on his hat. We also got a tour of the maternity ward (which was decidedly less fun for some of us, who are not looking forward to labor). Abbey finished the class by telling me that I have the best baby in the world in my belly. Let's hope she remembers that in 6 weeks!
2 comments:
wow, i felt like i was reading my own biography. does abbey sleep sideways like presley does and kick you in the neck all night? we tried to tell presley if she got scared and needed to come in our room in the middle of the night, she could sleep on the pallet on the floor we made. she seemed excited about it, but inevitably ended up between us while jesse and i tried not to fall off either side of the bed since she left us with about one inch each.
Too funny!!! I do not envy you the "cry-it-out" method if you have to resort to that. :o)
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