To sleep, perchance to dream *

Each of my children have had trouble stay in his or her own bed and sleeping through the night. After dealing with this to various degrees for over 11 years, I am desparate to have my youngest sleep all night. Grace starts off in her own bed (still the crib), but ends up in ours sometime during the early morning hours, right when I'm a zombie and can't say anything but a sleepy "OK," because I'm delusional and believe at the moment that if only I let her get in bed with us, we would all sleep.

I figure we're making progress, though...Robert would have slept in our bed until he was at least 6 if we'd let him--maybe longer. (Don't tell him that I told you this!) And Josiah slept in our bed (or on a pallet on our floor) until he was 3. So it's gradually getting better, right?

Right?!

Grace recently said (repeatedly), "I don['t] like my kib" (translation: "I want to sleep with you") so I thought of making her something she could sleep with that she loves. She has a rainbow colored sundress that she loved in the summer and it's too small to fit her when it warms up again, so that became my project: I made the rainbow sundress into a rainbow pillow for her to sleep with.

I sewed along the arm holes and across the neckline, leaving the straps hanging out like loops. I took an old, clean pillow that I had previously taken out a good bit of the stuffin' to use in some other project, put the dress over it like a pillowcase, and sewed it closed with several darts at the hemline. I plan to go back and put some snaps or other closure to replace the darts, when I can find that sewing bag. Or, more likely, I'll cross that bridge when I am ready to wash the "pillowcase."

It is cute; it was quick and easy, even by hand; it doesn't ruin the dress in any way (rip out my stitches and it's ready to wear again); it has cute loops to hold onto while dragging it everywhere...and Grace could not care less about it.

But she is sleeping through the night in her "kib" most nights now! I promised her that she could have a bath every day if she slept in her crib "until it's light outside." She loves baths, and doesn't normally get one every day. Hey...whatever works.

The first morning after this promise, I happily reminded Grace, "You slept all night in your crib!" She looked up at me with big eyes and asked, "Do I get a baff?!" Then the second morning, she said, "Momma, I seep all night in my kib...Do I get anudder baff?"

And she will sleep with the rainbow pillow now. She doesn't completely ignore it like before. She even knows how to use it as a stalling tactic..."But, Momma, I need you ta get my rainbow pih-woh."

"And then get me da medicine to make my feet feel all better."


Um....yeah.

~~~~~

* Ever wonder how many phrases we commonly use came from Shakespeare? Well, OK, maybe not...but if you're curious, you can go here and check it out at The Phrase Finder.