Sleep trials

The first few weeks of the big girl bed were completely smooth sailing.  But, apparently, novelty wears off and we have had some late night differences of opinion (disagreements, battles, wars?!?) with Anna related to her staying in her room and her bed.

On "good" nights she wakes up once around 1 a.m. and is easily coaxed back to her bed and to sleep.  A "bad" night involves multiple wake ups and her valiant attempts at negotiating to sleep in our bed, or read another story, or have a glass of milk, or put all of her animals to bed, or, or, or...

And, a "horrible" night, well, let's just say we've had to resort to locking our bedroom door and enduring hours (yes, hours!) of top of the lung screaming and begging to let her come in and sleep with us.  Thank goodness this has only happened twice.

I know in my mind this is a passing phase, but when you're in the thick of it, all you can imagine in your mind is, "wow, I'm never going to sleep through the night again."  I guess I should get used to that for awhile - maybe Anna is just helping to prep us and refresh our memories for when the baby arrives.

Anyways, on one particular "bad" night, I heard Anna wake up at about 11 p.m. (third time of the night) and knew she was moving around in her room.  I debated going in and telling her to get back in bed but decided against it - she was being quiet and I knew (hoped!) she would poop out soon.  And honestly, the night was precariously balanced on the threshold of becoming a horrible night, so I felt ignoring was the best course of action.  I did keep hearing a clicking sound and vaguely wondered what it was, but again, I was looking to avoid a horrible night.

At about 11:30 Anna was at my bedside with a huge grin, a head full of bows/clips (clicking sound solved!), asking, "Don't I look pretty, mama?!?"  Now, I know I shouldn't have grabbed the camera because it lends undue attention and recognition to the fact that she is out of bed, but I had to capture the look.

And, after I took her picture, it actually was quite easy to get her back to her bed and back to sleep for the rest of the night.  I guess late night grooming is pretty tiring...