Dave has been in Seattle for the past week for work stuff, which means I’ve been back in full-time single mom mode. Which is fine, it’s certainly not like this is something foreign to me that I’m not used to handling. But I guess I’ve gotten used to having those couple of nights a week where I know I’ll get a good night’s sleep, so it’s been rough trying to re-acclimate.

The problem is, Lucy still doesn’t sleep through the night. And yes, I know, she’s over 2 1/2 years old now. But every night, without fail, she climbs up into my bed, snuggles in between me and Chris, and spends the rest of the night kicking me in the ribs or grabbing fistfuls of my hair. And I’ve put up with it forever, but the other problem is that I hurt my back around Christmastime, and it’s been bothering me ever since. So when Lucy was waking me up at night, it took forever for me to get comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

So, I decided that I’d had enough and was going to attempt sleep training Lucy again. Side note: this is almost a year exactly after I paid a professional sleep coach to get Lucy to sleep through the night. Which, as lovely as she was and I have no doubt that she’s good at her job, it really didn’t help our situation at all.

Only now, Lucy is almost old enough that you can bargain with her. And remembering how well bribes worked on Catie, I figured this was worth a shot.

First, I had to get Catie to agree to my plan. I have boxes of Catie’s old toys in storage, things she’s outgrown and Lucy has never seen. We dug through the boxes and found a plush Ming-Ming from the Wonder Pets doll.

Say what you will, I love that damn duckling.

I told Lucy that I had a special present for her that she could keep in her bed with her, but that it meant that she would have to stay in her bed all night or else I’d have to send it back. I showed her the doll and she went nuts, and I reminded her, “But remember, if you want to keep her, you have to stay in your own bed, or else I’ll have to send her back to the Wonder Pets.”

And she’s been… well… better. She still comes in my room every night, but it’s usually just that she wants me to tuck her back in, or I get the classic, “I need to go potty!” or something like that.

But she clearly understands, and repeats back to me, “I stay in my own bed ALL NIGHT so Mama be happy for me.” (Where “happy for me” equals “proud of me.” Same difference.) And even with a couple of wake-ups per night, she’s generally staying in her bed until at least 7 or 7:30 every morning, which is way better than how it was going before, so I’ll take what I can get.

I still maintain that this child is damn lucky she’s cute.

Oh, and about my back? I made an appointment with my chiropractor, and after two adjustments, I feel about a thousand percent better. So, go figure.

All good things, progress-wise.

P.S. If the blog title makes no sense because you’ve never seen the Wonder Pets, that’s Ming-Ming’s catchphrase.

You’re welcome.