Mission aborted

At 2am this morning, David and I officially decided to abort the Big Girl Bed mission. That decision was reinforced at 4am and 6am. By 8:30am, the Big Girl Bed was banished to the attic, never to be seen again - at least until her 2nd birthday -and the crib was happily back in place.

I still don't think it was a hopeless cause. I have several friends on my May Mommies board who have already switched their kids over, and are reportedly enjoying happy nights with no ill effect. However, our problem was that, while we thought Elizabeth was sleeping peacefully from 8:30pm-7:30am every night, she was apparently waking up every 2 hours, evaluating her situation and deciding there was nothing better to do and no way to get to mommy or daddy, so she rolled over and went back to sleep. When she moved to the big girl bed, she instantly discovered there was something much better to do when she woke up - crawl as fast as she could to the door and scream bloody murder until mommy or daddy appeared. Don't get me wrong, we were not rushing in to her immediately. But, this child has inherited the stubborn gene from not one, but both of her parents. She doesn't give up easily. My dream of her waking up and finding a book to read or a toy to play with quietly did not materialize. My secondary dream of her falling asleep in exhaustion beside the bedroom door also did not materialize.

So, the Big Girl Bed mission has been scrapped until she can either 1) be bribed with stickers or other form of reward for sleeping quietly in her bed, and/or 2) be intimidated by David enough to stay in the bed. We figure that will take at least a year - or more. No rush to start the experiment again, that's for sure!

Oh, and in case you're apt to comment on the emotional scarring our child has just been through, be assured I've added $100 to her Future Therapy fund, which has been started to make up for my parenting goofs. All contributions are welcome - I think she's going to need them!