Toddler Bedtime Battles!!!

~Day 3 of starting Juliette on a bedtime routine~

Let me start first my explaining the situation: Juliette is our 21 month old toddler. She is our only child and we are doing our best to not let her become over spoiled (this is not as easy as it sounds).

Before she was born, we both agreed that she would NOT be sleeping in our bed. No matter what....Unfortunately it was only about 2 days after we brought her home that she found her way into our bed. And believe it or not, I was not the one who caved. My boyfriend Joe grew so attached to our new baby that in a matter of days she has sweetly found her place in our bed. This went fine for months. If we needed our "alone time", she would be placed in her crib ( which also made its way into our room somehow). As the months went by, it became more & more harder to remove her from the bed. She had us wrapped around her finger....

When Juliette was about 15 months old, we devised a plan to keep her in her own bed. We loaded her bed up with stuffed animals and all of her "friends". This went well for about 3 months until she once again realized that we had taken the control back.

So for the last 2 months, we have been struggling like CRAZY to get her in bed at a decent time and to have as little fight with her as possible. Most of the time we cave in and she comes into our bed. NOT ANYMORE!!! :D

Me and Joe have decided that no matter what, she will take her bath and in bed by 9pm. This time is only temporary until she gets use to it, when she is use to 9pm, we will be bumping it up an hour!! Hopefully in a month or so, our little pumpkin-turned-monster will climb into her bed with no fights, no kicking and no loud screams for me or Joe. Its hard to refuse your 21 month old daughter when she screams for "Omie & Daddy" and sounds like she is in severe pain. We are getting over the initial, "oh ok, lets bring her to bed...poor thing". Instead we are now saying to each other, "Yes!!! We are going to have the control back!!"

Tonight has only been the third night of this new routine but, so far we have survived. Last night was the worst. She woke up at 2am and somehow managed to make me stay in her room with her. The only problem was that she decided she had gotten enough sleep and wanted to stay up. She stayed up for the REST of the night and only napped from 9-12 the next morning(today).

It is now midnight and she has woken up 3 times already, begging me with her tear filled eyes to come in our bed. I keep telling her it will be aright and putting her back in her bed. I should get some sleep before she decides to pull another all-nighter!!!

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Well with that off of my chest, I have time for one more: 8)
This is my very first time Blogging, so I am not sure if I even did it right...but its done..lol
I've always enjoyed writing and sharing my experiences with other people. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I like telling it. I will be using this Blog as a way to free my mind of the mental stress that a toddler will bring!!!
I am sure that from time to time I will also be Blogging about the stresses of relationship and just life in general!!