We have been really blessed with our daughter. She is amazing. A great help around the house and a great example to her little brothers.
But see, Julia had just one little, tiny problem that she needed to work on: Sleeping on her bed all night long.
She did excellent going to sleep. Most nights, after just a couple of stories, she would go right to sleep, but it was the staying asleep part we struggle with
As a baby she wasn't any better. She had the need of having some one's body laying right next to her to comfort her.
It was easier when it was just her and we had a guest room. Spencer and I would take turns and spend the night on a twin size bed with her.
After Josh came it was harder to do that. Finding herself alone on a bed was terrifying to her, and so she had a hard time sleeping through the night.
This has been our on-going battle ever since.
We had been given advice from many people to just let her cry through the night. And I admit if it was Josh doing this I would have done it in a heart bit, but it was Julia.....girls don't come any sweeter than her.
Spencer nor I had the heart of letting her cry through the night or do something drastic to stop that bad sleeping habit she was developing
Lately she was waking up and would come to our door and knock on it until Spencer would walk her right back to her bed. This wasn't just happening once during the night. Sometimes we heard our door knocked on 5, even 6 times.
It was becoming very frustrating!! Thank goodness it was Spencer and not me waking up with her and taking her back to the bed.
A couple of months ago we had an idea. We made up a calendar with her favorite character on it and every night that she slept on her bed she got a smiley face sticker to put on the calendar.
As a reward, after many stickers, she could earn a trip to her favorite park, to McDonald's and her big prize was a trip to Chucky Cheesse's.
She tried so hard months before, but it was in August that she finally did it. The calendar was almost full of stickers. Therefore, to Chucky Cheese's we went....
The good news is that we stopped giving prizes and she is still sleeping on her bed
2 comments:
It is good that she is sleeping in her own bed. She is such a sweetheart. I can understand your struggle. Yay for Julia! So glad she got to accomplish something all by herself.
Gaby what a wonderful idea, I am so glad it worked.
Julia is one of the most sweetest, endearing little girls I know the thought of her crying out just breaks my heart, so I can't imagine what it did to you as her sweet mommy, so glad you found an alternative that worked. Goodness I love that girl!
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