The Big Girl Bed

I had been planning on getting a toddler bed for Gabriella for a while now. She is not trying to climb out of her crib or anything, but I needed to do it because of our living situation. Gabriella is in the same room with me. In fact her crib is at the foot of my bed! She has waken up in the middle of the night, every night since NOVEMBER to call out very loud "MOM, MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM" so that I will give her juice and put her in bed with me. It's funny, when I tell people that the first thing they ask is, "Did you TRY to put her back in bed?" Um, no. DUH why didn't I think of that??? YEA-DOESN'T WORK, obviously the first thing I tried.
So anyways- I saw in a Toys R Us flyer that they had a Dora the Explorer bed on sale. Ok, when I say Gabriella is obsessed with Dora, that is an understatement. So I did some research and tried other stores to see if they had it cheaper, they didn't even have it. I showed the book to Gabriella. Where she even gets this I have no idea, but she started saying, "I want my Dora bedroom." So last weekend I had planned on buying the bed for her. I had talked to my mom on the phone about it, and she agreed with me about getting the bed. Even though she was not climbing out of her crib, that maybe she would stay in her bed all night. So on Saturday I told Gabriella we were going to look at the Dora beds and she said, "I'm so happy right now." I thought I was hearing things. Then she held her little plastic Dora up and said , "Dora so happy right now mom." I said "Dora is so happy right now?" She said, "NO! I'm so happy right now!" It was so funny! My child is a prodigy.
Caitlyn, Gabriella and I set out to get the bed. I looked in the bed section and of course it wasn't there. I was a little nervous, how could I get out of that one if they didn't have it? Then as we walked down another aisle, we saw it. Gabriella screamed! She wanted me to put the huge box on her lap, it was so funny. When we got home she was right on top of me, trying to help me disassemble her crib and then assemble her Dora bed. It was really cute as she helped unpack all of the pieces and handed each one to me. It even continued to be cute as she kept inching her way next to me or in front of me and tried to take the tools away so she could do it. Apparently I wasn't fast enough for her. After about 1hr for what should have been a 20min project and she started taking screws and sticking them into holes in her bed and grabbing the screwdriver, I had to banish her from the room. When I was finally done she was so excited! She immediately ran in and started jumping on the bed until I stopped her.
So far she has done very well. I expected her to get out of bed when I put her down to go to sleep, but she didn't. She just stayed in her bed and slept really well. I put her juice next to her bed so she really liked that. The first few nights she slept in her bed all night. She did wake up but remained in her bed after I rubbed her back and she got back to sleep. One night she even slept the whole night and I had my first full night's sleep since November! But the last couple nights she has resorted to calling me and then getting in bed with me again. I put her back into her bed, rubbed her back and listened for her breathing to slow and indicate she was asleep. As soon as I got comfortable again I heard, "Mom, MOOOOOMMMMMMMMM..." She then very emphatically handed me her blanket and pillow and grabbed her juice and made her way to my bed. Yes she is as determined as Caitlyn! I guess the only way I can end this is to either sleep on the couch(*aching back*) or wait to resolve once we settle into another place! By the way Caitlyn has also been sleeping in my room (there are 2 twin beds in there) for the past 3 weeks. At first it was b/c she was sick, then b/c she watched Nightmare on Elm Street at her friends, now I don't know the excuse. So good think I DON'T have a boyfriend/husband/whatever-there'd be no room for him! I do like it though, I am very protective and like to fall asleep listening to my kids snoring and taking solace that they are safe with me.