Time of Weakness

Who:  Mommy

What:  Weakness

When: 5 AM

Where:  Our Bedroom

Why:  refer to "when"

How:  see Below

After climbing out of her crib, a broken leg scare and an emergent trip to our pediatrician, Lucianna officially graduated to her toddler big girl bed.  

Time to celebrate a milestone?  Not just yet - I digress to explain my lack of enthusiasm over this new stage. 

Confession:  Each night between 2am and 4am, the creak of Lena's door rouses me and I hear her growing feet spatter down the hall.  Mike & I allow her to curl up with us until morning light as we are not only too tired to fight the fight but we also have trouble resisting cuddles.  

Once we transferred Lucy to her big girl bed, she too was enticed out of bed by the desire for early morning cuddles in Mommy & Daddy's bed, which in and of itself is not a problem.  Heck, our king size bed can easily house our family of four plus our fifty pound German Shorthaired Pointer, Hutchinson.  The issue arises when daughter one realizes daughter two is also in the bed - no matter the hour...this IS fun (for them).  

I am NOT a morning person and do not feign happiness as the sun rises, I admit I can a smidge cranky in the morning and I have yet to conquer the feeling of sleep slipping away from me as two bubbly girls giggle and jump on me at 5:30 am.  

So, after deep thought (aka, one minute conversation) the solution that Daddy & I arrived at was simple (or so we thought).  The girls just can't come in to our room anymore - they will have to wait until the sun rises.  We took the time to explain the new rule to Lena and although she was a tiny disappointed, she handled it quite well.  The first night with the new rule led to taking turns returning Lena to her bed; we knew we would be woken up & were prepared - we planned to crack down for a week until a new habit was established.  And so, we did - Lena slept in her bed until 7 am (we had to bring her back to her bed three times - not too bad).

Time to CELEBRATE?  Not just yet.  

Where we succeeded with Lena, we failed with Lucianna.  

How can Mommy resist that sweet little voice at 5 am, "Mommy, I sleep with you now?"  

Yes, Lucy...you found the sweet spot, the time of weakness.  And so, we cuddled.  

Failure?  Maybe, but failure never felt so good as her head curled up on my chest, twirling her hair, sucking her fingers and loving her mama.

Life is a work in progress, an evolving journey where compromising your endgame is not always wrong.