Another First

Our old place was 1000 square feet, all one floor.  All the rooms connected to the main living space, so it was easy to keep track of Alaina.  Our new place is actually three stories.  The bedrooms are upstairs, away from the main living space.  I have the baby monitor in our room where Joya is, and Alaina's room is just at the top of the stairs, so I try to keep her door cracked when she's in there so I can hear her.

At our old place, I would feed Joya in the morning and listen for Alaina to wake up.  When she did, I would go into her room and tell her that it okay to get out of bed and come into the living room while I fed Joya.  Here, that is no longer a good plan, since it would involve me A) going up and down the stairs or B) yelling up the stairs.  So I told Alaina that in the morning when her door is open, she can get up.  I figured I would just open her door when I went downstairs to feed the baby, and she could come at her leisure.

The problem with this plan presented itself early this morning.  Right before I go to sleep for the night I open Alaina's door.  That way I can hear her, and her room gets some of the heat from the house at night.  At 5:36am, I heard Alaina crying really sad tears.  Woke me up and got my heart racing.  I didn't even bother with my glasses, I just got to her room as quickly as I could.  However, she was not in her room.  She was downstairs, at the bottom of the stairs in our dark house.  I remember being little and how scary your house is at night when the lights are off.  I ran downstairs and scooped her up.  I told her that if it was dark outside and dark inside our house, then I was in my bed sleeping.  She told me she wanted to get up, but I told her it was too early and to go back to sleep.  I calmed her down, put her back in bed, and closed her door.

I still want her to get out of bed on her own in the morning, but clearly at night I'm going to have to keep her door partially closed.  That way she can't tell it's fully open and will still sleep when it's sleep time.  We'll have to see what adventures await us tonight.