I knew it wouldn’t last…after over 7 months of sleeping in a big girl bed WITHOUT realizing that she is technically free to get in and out of her bed as she pleases, Gabby has FINALLY discovered that she does indeed have the ability to climb out of bed.
It was actually quite funny. When we first moved Gabby to a real bed, she got in and out of bed a few times during her first nap. I threatened her with her life, and she pretty much hasn’t climbed out by herself since. And I mean FOR NOTHING. If Molly the dolly fell out of bed, Gabby would cry out helplessly for us to come pick her up. If we forgot to turn on her nightlight, she would cry for us to come back and turn it on.
I couldn’t believe she took the “stay in bed” command so seriously that she wasn’t even willing to hop out for a second to grab her fallen baby. But…I was more than willing to make a few extra trips into her room for silly things in exchange for having a kid who would reliably stay put in her bed. Even in the mornings if she woke up ahead of us, she contained herself in her bed until we came to get her. And she never would cry for us in the morning…she would entertain herself by playing with Molly, singing, arranging her blankets, talking to herself, and playing all sorts of pretend games…and we just went to get her whenever we were ready. Yes, we were spoiled.
But that is all over now, and I blame my parents. When we were in San Diego over the holidays, Gabby slept in my dad’s office on the floor on a foam mat. It was a perfectly suitable bed for her, but with it being on the floor, there wasn’t such a rigid “on the bed” vs. “off the bed” boundary. After a few nights in San Diego on her floor bed, that kid was up and down nonstop. She would wake up in the morning and dig through her suitcase and pull out books and clothes and get herself dressed in her favorite items (Hello Kitty t-shirt, pink socks, pink skirt). Early one morning I woke up and heard such a ruckus coming out of her room that I thought my mom or dad was in there with her…I went upstairs and discovered her dancing around the room by herself, singing, wearing her fresh outfit (she had even taken off her pull-up and replaced it with Hello Kitty underwear on her own). She totally gave me a deer-in-headlights-oh-crap-I’m-busted look when I walked in. And then she laughed. And she has been getting out of bed whenever she feels like it ever since!
Some nights she is up and down…getting out of bed to get a book off of her bookshelf, to turn her nightlight on and off, to turn her humidifier on and off (I guess we ought to move these electrical things someplace she can’t reach them), to get clothes out of her drawers…other nights she stays put. Some mornings I walk into her room and discover a massive pile of books next to her bed that weren’t there when we put her to bed. So far we have yet to wake up to bright little eyes staring at us…but she is somewhat of a late sleeper so I am usually up first anyway. We can usually sleep until about 7:30 or 8…I will enjoy it while I can because I am sure that won’t last forever!
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1 comments:
That is amazing. You got seven months? Pretty sure Luke didn't go seven HOURS before getting into bed with me. It's a rare occasion that he's still in his own bed in the morning- either he's in with Gillian, in our bed, or on the living room couch.
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