Never an empty bed for me

A couple of weeks ago Scott made a trip out to stay with his Dad in the hospital as he was recovering from neck surgery. The first night he was gone, after scriptures, prayers, and teeth brushing, this is what I found when I came to my bedroom to go to sleep:

 A bed full of boys.

 

Garrett was sleeping in Scott's spot, and Emme and Owen had taken over my place, with Emme sleeping just as close to Owen as he does to me each night when he sleeps with us.

 Emme has his own bed; two actually. One toddler bed that lives in a three man tent that is always up under Garrett's loft bed , and one that is the twin sized mattress on the bottom bunk of Owen's bunk bed. But each night he will either crawl into bed with us around 2 in the morning, or he would start off in our beds from the get-go.

He has been a co-sleeper from the time he was a newborn, through the years he was always so sick and feverish, up until now; so it is something he has grown up loving. I actually don't mind having him sleep with us, I really like having him as a cuddle buddy, and know that this isn't a trend that would stick for too long so I have been enjoying while it has lasted.

Even when Owen unknowingly retaliated Emme's close quarter cuddling by using him as a pillow, Emme stayed just as close.

 Wanting to have a place of my own to sleep, and knowing that Scott wants him out of our bed, I came up with a sticker chart for Emme. His very first one. (I love sticker charts!)

 

 

 

 His prize at the end of his chart is a little Lightning McQueen car. A red one. He has been asking and asking for the red McQueen car so it became the perfect incentive. (Three bucks to get him stay in his bed, yep, I can handle that!)

 I moved his toddler bed into my room, near my side of the bed, and posted his chart AND his prize on the wall above him so he could see it all the time. This helped get Emme out of the bed, and Garrett had had enough of the Emme close quarter cuddling the first night that he didn't come back for a couple more nights. Owen, however, remained in my bed the whole time Scott was away. He needed a sticker chart of his own I guess!

Emme is excited to get his new Lightning McQueen car soon - he only has four more days to finish before he does get it - but I think the biggest draw for him is the actual sticker chart itself. He loves waking up and getting to stick that new sticker on his chart. I found some old Cars stickers in the school room, so now he is getting to put Lightening McQueen stickers on his chart to earn a new Lightning McQueen! After the first two and a half weeks, he even asked me to move his bed back in to the boys' room and he is willingly sleeping in the tent again on his toddler bed! He will occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, and wanders around the halls or in our room, but he is sort of sleep walking and is easy to walk back to his bed. Last night when Scott found him and asked him what he was doing in the hallways at 3am all he could say was, "Frankenstein."

 

 He has done so wonderfully at mastering this that I am excited to see if it keeps up after his chart is done.