My beautiful, sweet, angel baby has FINALLY been kicked to the curb! ;-) Meaning she has finally been moved out of our adjoining room! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! Wow, only a year and a half later!

She has by far been my most challenging kid and has always had sleep issues. Nothing dramatic really, just waking up constantly in the middle of the night. I go back in, lay her down, tuck her back in, and MOST of the time that would be it. But lately, the last couple of months I guess, she doesn't always go down without a fight. If she knows that ANYONE is still in the room she cries like the world is coming to an end. So most of the time, DH (dear hubby) and I just head out to the living room and he takes the couch and I get the chair
>:-/ He just bitches too much about his back if he sleeps in the chair. So this has been putting quite the strain on us. We are constantly walking on eggshells when we go in our room. Can't watch TV, can't take a shower, scared to flush the toilet even! All for fear of being kicked out of our own room by our baby! Now, if you know me pretty well, that just ain't gonna fly. But for so long we just put up with it because we needed SLEEP. I've basically become accustomed to waking up at least 1 or 2 times a night to lay her back down, and then get up with her at 5:30am - but now this adding of insult to injury and being sent to the living room - OH NO MISSY.

The straw that broke my back though, was that recently she started waking up when we were . . . being intimate (that sounds so gay) and that was becoming a real problem. We are a pretty active couple, always have been, and that neven woke her up before so we counted ourselves lucky! But lately we've both been so stressed out and afraid to wake her that it's really taken a toll on us both. We NEED that time to be together to be a couple and be loving together. It's been a rough road adjusting to being single, then dating someone with a kid(s), then getting pregnant and having a baby, moving in together, getting married and becoming a stepparent with four kids - all in the space of 2 1/2 years. We don't get much time alone together anymore since we don't have many babysitters so that time alone has become EXTREMELY important. I've noticed that we both get pretty snippy toward each other and the kids if it's been more than 3 days in between! But when we have time together, even just to talk or watch a movie cuddled up or have a glass of wine - ALONE, we are so much more loving with each other. We communicate better, touch and cuddle more, and just enjoy each other more. Which in turn makes us better parents too. We are more patient and less stressed out and on edge. It's real easy to snap when four kids need your constant attention and you've had no sleep and no sex, believe me.

So last night after we went and spent an hour in the Sprint store trying to change out our NexTel service we decided to eat out somewhere. One of my favorite restaurants was right there in the area, Strings. We used to go there all the time when we were dating cause they had my all time fav wine that NO ONE had. So I was saying how we could unwind and have a glass of wine and she could have pizza cause she LOVES that. He brought up that maybe we should just go to Round Table cause he'd rather be in a pizza joint when she freaked out (as she usually does) than in a nice restaurant. I decided he was right so we headed over. We sat down with our beer waiting for the pizza, holding hands, looking into each others eyes (the baby was quite for the 3 minutes that took place) and we both said, at the same time - "I wish we could move her out of our room" - funny. So we started talking about it. Our house has two bedrooms upstairs (the kids' rooms) and the master with retreat downstairs so we really didn't think we had any options. Then we decided that maybe she could just sleep in his son's room since he is only here half the time. He sleeps so deep that I don't even think she COULD wake him up. And if she did, we could just transplant him to the couch and he wouldn't even know. Plus, half the time she would be alone anyway! We looked at each other like "How did we not think of this before?" So we debated and ended up decided to try it out last night.

We got home and changed her for bed. Moved all her stuff upstairs and took her too. We tiptoed downstairs and waited. Nothin. Then we went in our room and almost cried with joy! We took a shower, watched some TV, had a glass of wine, got dirty, and went to sleep - it was like we were on vacation! It felt like we were staying in a hotel or something, the room just didn't feel like ours. It was wonderful. Oh it was just heaven. She did wake up around 1:00 and still got up at 5:30 but it didn't seem so awful somehow. Now she is taking her nap upstairs and I have the freedom to put away my laundry in the bedroom or do the dishes or WHATEVER I want because she won't hear me! YAY! I'm already planning out something for tonight, maybe light some candles - something we used to do all the time before she came. The first and last time I tried it the smoke alarm went off in our room, right in the middle of things, and she didn't sleep again for the rest of the night!

Wow I'm long winded. So that's it for now I guess, no morel to the story or anything, just a happy ending for last night anyway - but I'll take it! Iit feels nice to share :-) So thanks for listening...or whatever ;-)