My Roaming Sleeper

Ok, Allison is my 3rd daughter and yet ....

Until now I have never had a kid that didn't sleep in their room. Remember a while back when she was sneaking into Amy's room every night? Well, the late night roaming has returned but now, it's just getting bizzarre!

For a while we would wake up anywhere from 2-4 times a night to the sound of Allison coming out into the hallway. If we didn't go to her she would lay down in the hallway and sleep there until one of us found her and put her back in bed. She always ended up back in the hallway at some point but both David and I felt like she needed to be in her bed, not sleeping on the dusty, full of pet dander floor. So we just kept putting her back in the bed.

Then one night I found her sleeping in the BATHROOM. Her body was on the bath mat and her head was on the TILE FLOOR. How in the world was that even remotely comfortable?!?! I put her back in bed and when I asked her about it the next day she said she slept in the bathroom so no one would come find her and put her in her room. ARGH!

So I dragged out the old crib mattress. I set it up in the sitting area in our room. And now she is sleeping in our room. BUT still, I wake up and find her on the floor, not on the mattress.

And the picture above? That was Monday. She woke up crabby from an all too short nap. I was flying around trying to get things ready for the first AHG meeting. So I told her if she was too crabby to be awake she needed to go back upstairs and go to bed. I didn't hear anything and assumed she had actually gone back upstairs. I went about my business and then, when I went to get some things off the dining table and load them in my car - there she is - sound asleep - on the hard wood floor.

Today at nap time I thought I heard her wake up but then never saw her. I was doing laundry and when I went to put some away - there she was - in the hallway outside our bedroom - asleep between two piles of dirty laundry .....

What is up? Why is she doing this? Is it a phase? I am going insane trying to figure it out. Audrey and Amy never did this, ever. I am hoping it is just an insecurity on her part due to all the changes going on in her little world: Audrey and Amy are back at school and they are both there all day this year. Both big girls are playing football and both big girls take dance. And now she is starting pre-school. So lots of changes and I am hoping her roaming is really just a need to feel connected and protected and that this goes away as she settles in to our new routine ......

Never a dull moment around here .... never a dull moment ....