Sam recently reached the 30-night mark for sleeping in her own bed.
It was rough going some nights, especially when she was sitting on her bed, her body all tense, sobbing that she just wanted someone to snuggle her and love her.
I held my ground. Several nights, my husband stepped in and took over settling her down. I'm not sure how he did it -- although I know it involved some taking of deep breaths -- but there she'd be in the morning, her hair mussed and her face a little blotchy but in her own bed nonetheless.
This means Sam earned the grand prize she'd been working toward: A giant wooden dollhouse from Target.
The thing's as tall as she is, and we shelled out quite a chunk of change for it. But she really worked hard for it, and we wanted to reward her with something we knew she'd love.
We bought it last Friday, and it took me more than an hour to put it together (hey, I'm not the carpenter in the family). Sam was patient the whole time. She kept Noah occupied and away from the parts until he finally crashed and I put him to bed. She even waited calmly, playing with the pieces until I asked for the next one I needed.
I got it together well after her bedtime, but I let her stay up for 45 more minutes so she and I could play with it.
And play we did: with the dollhouse, the Barbies she moved in there, the styrofoam from the box (which was pulled apart into balls for the doggie to chase and into pieces of "cereal" for the Barbies to eat) and the box itself (which became the barn for the horse and, toward the end, a campsite for the Barbies and their visitors).
To keep her sleeping in her bed, we've made a deal that, for every 7 nights in a row she's in her bed, she can pick out one more accessory for the dollhouse. Right now, she's eyeing up food for the kitchen and the big pink, wooden car.
As we were talking earlier this week about which thing she's going to pick next, she suddenly said that she had decided to ask Santa to bring her the wooden car for Christmas.
"That way," she told a delirious Daddy one morning, "Mommy doesn't have to worry about driving all the way to the store, and finding the car, and paying for it, and driving it back home, and taking it out of the box for me. I'll just wish for it, and it'll show up all by itself!"
I can't wait to tell her this one once she knows the truth about Santa. *smile*
In the meantime, I'm really proud of her. I miss holding her warm little body at night and listening to her breathing, but I'll admit that we're probably both getting better sleep. OK, maybe just her for now, since Noah's decided to get up between one and four times a night, but that's another blog for another day.
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