Big Girl Bed Drama

A few months ago we took Gianna's crib out of her room and put a "Big Girl" (toddler) bed in there. We figured she wasn't using the crib anyway--she had claimed ownership of our bed. It was a nice idea, you know: get her used to having the crib out of her room and get used to seeing a real bed in her room.

We never expected that a few weeks later she would suddenly decide that she hated our bed and she wanted to sleep in her bed. It was a somewhat difficult transition, but not too bad. She still wanted one of us to lay with her to fall asleep (and to read books in bed), which is no big deal except that the thing is only as big as a crib mattress. Okay...not too bad, I was only 5 months pregnant at the time and she wanted Justin to lay with her half the time anyway. Plus after she fell asleep Justin and I could stay up to watch Private Practice or Greys Anatomy...ha ha ha! We even took a weekend in October to re-do her room (pictures will be posted when there are not toys scattered everywhere).

Then she started staying up later and later and then it started: 2 year molars and nightmares/night terrors! So Gianna would wake up screaming bloody murder and be completely inconsolable. We tried bringing her back in our bed, but she didn't want to be in our bed...and she even did it while staying at my parents' house for a weekend, so we know it wasn't her room upsetting her. The only solution was to wake her up and start the routine over again (usually 12:30-2am was spent doing this).

Then, all of the sudden she wanted to be back in bed with us (I shouldn't say "us" because she inevitably kicked Justin down into the corner and me off the side, so I guess she just wanted our bed). She wants to read books in her bed (about 20 a night) then be carried to our bed...boo.

And the newest development, somewhere in the middle of the night she wants to go back into her bed and sleep there until morning.

I don't understand!

I know molars are painful and nightmares are scary, but having a toddler is downright frustrating (for all of us). She can speak full "sentences" in which I can understand about every 3rd word, but she thinks I am just not listening because I don't understand all of what she is saying. It will be nice when the rest of the words are understandable.

Oh, and to top it off, I'm pretty sure that she taught herself how to "Lie". Last night I was laying in her bed with her and she was asking to go in our bed and I said she needed to stay in her bed so she knocked on the wall (with her hand) and said "owie" and pointed to her head and asked for a kiss on her "owie" over and over from both Justin and I...yeah, so she told me she hit her head on the wall when I saw that it was her hand. Of course, she could have been telling me about something that happened a long time ago, but she seemed pretty convincing that she was talking about the present. How did she learn that?