The "Waking" Dead

So, I thought I was in the clear. Once we moved Abby to a "big girl" bed, she slept through the night like a champ, with only the occasional middle of the night waking. Sure, she stopped letting me sleep in until 9 a.m. (she'd just play in her crib) but I was ok with that. Suddenly in the last few months, she started coming through the house, up the stairs to our bedroom (our house is the main floor, with our bedroom and 1/2 bath upstairs) in the middle of the night, startling me awake when she was whimpering next to me in the dark. I never brought her into bed with us because a) she's a crazy flailer and b) with only a queen size, it's way too tight and c) usually I won't sleep, even if she does. So, I pick her up, bring her back to her room and give her another bottle (we're working on weaning off the bottle but this mid night wake up is deterring that), then if I'm lucky, she's asleep until 7 a.m. (no more sleeping in for ME!) But I don't love her wandering through the dark house, coming up our stairs. Plus, I have to wake up, put her back to bed and then lie in bed, praying she won't get up again. Repeat over and over again and now I'm drinking coffee (I'm a hard core tea drinker and HATE coffee!) and falling asleep all the time or feeling like I'm going to. My sleep is shot. I try getting my husband to get up but waking him is like moving a boulder. And if I DO get him up, he gets mad at her, uses his "pissed off daddy voice" and she ends up really crying. It doesn't help the situation. It's not like she's doing it to be defiant! She could be sleep walking, having nightmares, etc. So, I end up having to take over anyway. But it was getting worse. She wouldn't really open her eyes fully, so she was getting klutzy (doesn't help that I'm her mom!!) One time, she walked right into our wall. Another time, it was the edge of the door. Then, she walked into the open fridge door while I was getting more milk for her. Last week was the final straw. I came home after having coffee with a friend and when I came in the front door, her door was open. Immediately, I started looking around for her. In the living room...nope. Dining room...nope. Then I saw a little pile of pink clothes on the stairs going to our room. I moved closer and sure enough, she was laying on her arms on one step and her knees on the lower step (up near the top, of course)...oh, and she was fast asleep. I took a pic cause I couldn't believe it and that's when I realized she was out cold. I called her name and finally tickled her foot. She moved and immediately it was "uh, Mommmmmmy!!" I scooped her up in my arms (wondering why she hadn't gone into the bedroom and why in god's green earth my husband, who was asleep, hadn't heard her) and put her back into bed. All I could think was "What if she had fallen down the stairs?" Now, I was really worried. I talked to my husband and my other mom friends and they all said "put a gate up across her door." So, that night, that's what I did. She was surprisingly cool with seeing me put it up before I put her to bed, even asking why I was doing it and when I said "Because Abby wanders the house at night and Mommy is afraid you are going to hurt yourself", she said "Ok, Mommy." Other than the one time she pushed through the bottom corner and was playing at the top of the stairs (at least this was at 7 a.m. so not too bad), I was able to keep her contained. Did this stop the night waking though? In a word...NO! Now, she'd just bang on the gate and yell for me...but at least I wasn't worrying about her wandering through the house, possibly falling down either our stairs or the ones going to the basement (another fear of mine cause we have to leave the door to the basement open for my cat because his litter box is down there). And I'm still the one getting up but at least, for the most part, it's only once a night. So I take it in stride, drink some coffee and hope this doesn't last much longer. I really hate having to gate her like a wild animal! And my husband wonders why I always nap? Hmmm...gee, let me think about that one...after my nap! zzzzzzz