Bedtime Baby

I first told you about our struggle with Meredith at bedtime here.

We have managed to make going to bed a bit easier.

I tell her that we can rock for two minutes and then she has to go to bed.

The first few times, she demanded that she continue to rock.

I told her that she could rock alone, because I had to leave and couldn't rock her anymore.

She agreed, and snuggled in her rocking chair with her blankie, her water cup and her giant Minnie.

Forgive me for no photo, but trust that it is super cute.

If she stays in her room and doesn't cry, we tell her that we can leave her door open.

Suggesting that we will shut the door makes her turn it off quicker than Tony Romo changes girlfriends.

Some nights she actually fell asleep in the rocking chair, after kicking Minnie out of course.

So part of the process begun to work, but she wouldn't STAY in her room.

If she woke up, she would leave her room to find me.

I worked VERY hard to become coherent enough to actually take her back to her bed instead of allowing her to climb into ours. 
And believe me this was a hard task because I am a hard one to wake up! 

So we decided to offer her "an extra special present".

If she stayed in her bed all night for an entire week, she would receive the "extra special present!"

She would wake up in the morning soooo excited, saying "I stay in my bed!"

So the time came that she received her extra special present!

She has been BEGGING for this foamy Dora couch/bed for a really long time. 

And we thought that this was something that she genuinely wanted, so it would be worth the incentive to stay in her bed. 

We explained that we would take it away from her if she didn't continue to stay in her bed! 

So far so good, and she is in HEAVEN!