Paper Parents Pop Quiz #3 (PPPQ#3)

Daughter #1 is transitioning between her crib and a “big girl bed” that’s been set up for her. The transition has been a little rockier than I would like.

If she’s sleeping by 8:30pm, guaranteed she’s up and scared by 1am. Then usually again by 4am. Not always the wake-up where she mumbles in her sleep and she’s going right back down. The wake-up where I know she’ll be up for awhile and I need to put in extended time to get her back to sleep. Or I can bring her into our bed which is what my little girl really wants.

Now I'm not gorgeous to start with so I need all the beauty sleep I can get. And since mom is up three times a night with daughter #2, I know the decision with daughter #1 is all mine. So tonight at 1am she wakes up again in a fright….what do I do?

A) Crawl into her big girl bed with her and sleep for five minutes -- sometimes five hours -- depending on how hard I fall asleep. It’s better than going back to my bed and waking up two more times that night…

B) I take her into my own bed if I think she’s really going to be up for awhile. No sense fighting a one-hour battle and getting sleep deprived when bringing her into my bed will have her down in three minutes…

C) I turn on an extra light. I calm her down but make sure she understands I'm not staying for an extended visit.

D) I tell her she’s absolutely right. The world is a frightening place; monsters under the bed, Obama in the White House, Osama Bin Laden still at large. I further tell her that if the boogie-man is in the closet that she shouldn’t worry because after he “gets” her he’s going to get both her parents so none of us will see the sun rise in the morning…with that I tell her to have a good night and please stop whining. I shut out all the lights and go back to bed...

And the answer is????

I’ll let you know when I have this one figured out. Right now as tempting as D is, I’ve been working a combo of A, B and C….

A, a little more than I’d like, B, a little more than I should. C, as much as possible. It just hasn’t been all that possible yet. Crap this parenting thing isn't easy. And often times it doesn't stop when they go to bed -- or I go to bed, for that matter...