TAKING OUR BED BACK

Tim and I have been having a little trouble lately getting a good night's sleep, 

namely because lately, Tim and I have been having a little trouble keeping children out of our bed!

It all started back in January when the girls spent a few weeks taking turns with the sickies... 

They share a room, which is great.  Except for when one of them gets sick and has rough nights.

Then it's just double trouble.  The days get long and the nights get even longer when just one of them isn't sleeping, make it two and it's just misery!  So, mostly for our sanity, we spent most of the month having them sleep away from each other.  We figured McKenna would be the tougher one to break of bad habits, so we thought we were being really wise trying to keep her routine as close to normal as possible.  She had a few bad nights where she mostly slept in bed with us, but as much as we could, we figured she was the one that needed to be in her bed and her room. So again, thinking we were really wise, we made up a little bed on our floor and left it there for a while for Brinlee.  That way neither girl could wake up, or be kept awake by, the other.  Brilliant!

Or so it seemed.  Until the bugs passed and it was time to get everyone back to normal.  Bless her heart, poor Brinlee just couldn't adjust!  The story varied a little: some nights she was scared, some nights she didn't feel good, some nights she was hungry or lonely, some nights McKenna was coughing too much, some nights she really was still mostly asleep and was just confused, weepy, and wandering.  But regardless of the story, for several weeks, every night turned out the same: 

Brinlee in our bed, sleeping great, 

Tim and I almost falling out of our bed, sleeping terrible.  

For a while we gave her the benefit of the doubt.  She probably really did need time to readjust.  But by the time we figured her adjusting period was becoming more of a game, well then we were just too tired.  When you haven't slept for a month, it's a little too easy to put a crying kid in bed with you at 3:00 in the morning rather than deal with the problem! But it was indeed a problem... 

So, one morning, after another long night, I decided that enough was enough.  Tim and I were taking our bed back!

I got online and googled some images of banana splits, and all through breakfast I showed them to Brinlee and talked to her about how awesome they are!  Then, during lunch, she and I drew one up, and I made the picture into puzzle pieces.  We counted out the pieces (5 all together), and I told her that for every night she stayed in her bed for the whole night, she would get one piece of her puzzle.  And once she had earned them all and built her puzzle banana split, we would buy the stuff for a real banana split.

I actually didn't have super high hopes.  But that very night we didn't see or hear from her until 7:00 in the morning!  Hallelujah! 

And she has done it every night since!  

This morning she was able to put the cherry on the top of her puzzle, and after lunch, we had the real deal.  She was one happy little camper!  

I figure eventually we'll have everything back to the way it used to be and we'll do away with the incentive.  But for now, Tim and I are loving these sleep-filled nights too much!  Besides, who doesn't love some left over sweet treats sitting around the house?!  It's a win, win, win!

She looked through my cookbooks today and we got her next puzzle up and ready.

Any guesses as to what her next prize will be?