Monday, February 27, 2012

A Chest Bump for Me

Patience sure as heck is a virtue, one that I seriously need to put a radical amount of energy into improving/increasing, but tonight I made myself proud. I would have chest bumped myself if I could figure out a way to do it.  While at Megs Baby Shower (more on that later) we all chatted a bit about our challenges as Parents and it is no secret that getting Avery to bed at a reasonable hour and getting her to stay in her bed is at the top of my "Need to work on" lists. So tonight I took some advice from one of the Mom's there. After about 30 minutes of reading in the hallway, I got up, went downstairs and let Riley outside.  Avery followed me downstairs, I calmly picked her up, brought her back to her bed, kissed her head, told her I loved her and proceeded to walk back out of her room.  She quietly put her head down and went to sleep...NOT. Not even close, but the good news is, I never raised my voice, didn't threaten to "spank her bum" and got some exercise.  The exercise you ask? How did I get some exercise? Oh, that is easy, because I walked to and from my room and up and down the stairs 11 times.  Every time she made her way out of her room in search of me, I would pick her up, hold her tight, place her back in her bed, kiss her head and remind her that I loved her.  The second to last time I told her if she left her room again I would have to close her door because she needed her sleep and all this getting up was cutting into her sleep time.  She came out one more time, so when I put her back in her bed, I closed the door on my way out and she went to sleep.

True story, no jokes this time around, she fussed for a split second and then was out, the door is still closed, and Riley is downstairs on the couch while I am upstairs in bed, both of which NEVER happen. (her door is never closed and Riley is never downstairs without me)...

Any bets on whether we can reduce the trips back to her bed down to 10 tomorrow night?

2 comments:

Jeni said...

High five! Fingers crossed all goes well again tonight. You did great!

Theresa said...

I've seen Supernanny do that tons of times. It always works on the show :) And if I know you, it will work in your house too! Of course, I'm lazy so I lay in bed with each of the boys for about 15 minutes until they fall asleep and then usually don't hear from them again. I couldn't take the fight anymore. I was losing too much sleep.