Keepin' me on my toes

I believe that any time you feel content in your parenting skills - as in you sit there and look around and think, yeah! I can do this! I got this! I'm an awesome mom!  - a signal goes off in your child and they start to test you. And all over again I start questioning myself and my parenting ability. *sigh* Happens every time.

This time it was about sleep - again. It started with LB not letting us leave the room after we laid with her. Remember how we've had to lay down with her for the past year to get her to sleep? Yeah, still doing that. And every night one of us (whoever's night it was to put LB to sleep) would trudge downstairs and grumble "she needs to learn to put herself to sleep."
And maybe she heard us because suddenly laying down until she was asleep was not enough for her. Two nights in a row she would wake every time we left the room and scream and cry until we came back. Heartbreaking cries like, "Mommy! Come back! I need you!" And then the  I need you turned into "I need you to sleep with me" which started warning bells in our mind.
So, while Den was at work late and I had tried for an hour and a half to get LB to sleep I finally gave up and just left the room regardless of the cries. (I had been very calm and understanding during all this - a trait during these kind of times that does not come easily to me!) And what do I turn around to see? LB already out the door and racing down the stairs to get me. She had taken off the "child's lock" and got out easy-as-pie.
After doing this three times and a daddy attempt at laying down with her I decided there was only one way to stop this habit.
So, I locked her in her room.
And after trying to get out and realizing she couldn't - she fell asleep. with hardly any crying.
The only problem? I realized at 10:30p (for her 11 meds) that she had fallen asleep in the closet.

In this tiny little corner of the closet. She even added the blankets.

What the heck!? Creepy girl. So after getting her back in bed at 11, she decided to go back. After crying again at 2am I finally got her to stay in her bed and she stayed there until 7pm.

So you can understand my frustration and dread when night time came last night. I had talked and talked and talked to LB about night time and our new routine and how things would be different. She had a few tears and pleaded again that we sleep with her. I decided to stay firm. After snuggling, talking, and reading a long story, I kissed her goodnight and locked the door again.

And she didn't cry. (I did.) 

She did get up about 30 minutes later and go to the closet (is that not the weirdest thing ever!?) I went back and explained that the closet was not for sleeping and was not safe to go into and put her back in bed. We did this 3 times when I finally reached my limit. 

I watched her get up and head for the closet - again, and this time I didn't walk in, I just screamed through the locked door, "LILLIAN. DON'T YOU DARE GO INTO THAT CLOSET. GET BACK IN BED!" And what did she do? She scurried her little butt back into bed and slept there until 6:15 this morning, even after her 11pm meds.

I think this could be a start to having her go to bed on her own and giving Mommy and Daddy more time to ourselves at night - we hope. Den and I are resolved to stay firm on this and I think we can do it and I know LB can do it! I'm so proud of her :-)