I'm soooo tired!

I love my daughter more than life itself, but I'm at my wits end with her!

When she was 2, we decided it was time for her to move into a "big girl" bed. She was climbing out of her crib and I was worried she would get hurt. I bought side rails to put on her new queen size bed so she wouldn't roll out of bed, and at first it went great. Then she realized that her bed was big enough that Mommy could sleep with her if she insisted enough.....which she did. And oh the guilt if I tried to tell her "no".....so I usually ended up laying down with her until she fell asleep and then I would carefully, acrobatically crawl out of her bed (because the side rails were on, it made it kinda difficult to get out gracefully). Then about 2 or 3 times a night, she would cry "Moooommmyyy" when she realized I wasn't there anymore. So I would go back to her bed until she fell asleep and maneuver my way out of her bed yet again. I was getting so exhausted doing this night after night that I finally gave in one night when she asked if she could sleep with us in our bed......A HUGE MISTAKE now that I look back....LOL.

She is 7 1/2 years old now and just in the last 6 months or so, we were having her sleep in a toddler bed next to ours. We had been discussing moving her into her own bedroom again and she finally decided she wanted to try it.

I start out in her bed till she falls asleep (this is bringing back memories) and then get up and go to my bed. The first night went great....she slept all night.

Then it all went to pot!

She started waking up around 4:00 a.m. and would come into our room and stand on my side of the bed crying.....I wake up and say to her "come on".....I go back to her room and crawl in bed with her. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now. But it's gradually getting earlier and earlier that she wakes up realizing I'm no longer in her bed.

Last night I went to bed with her till she fell asleep and almost stayed there because I knew she would be waking me up sometime in the night to come back to her bed.....which, of course, she did.....until then, however, I was anticipating it and kept waking up expecting her to be standing on my side of the bed...about every hour or so I would wake up. At about 2:30 a.m she showed up in our room, crying. So I got out of bed and drearily wandered back to her room.....but then I couldn't get back to sleep....and when I did, I kept waking up! It was almost like I was in a constant state of half awake/half asleep.....not ever fully awake, but never fully asleep either......I'm sitting here typing this with my eyes half closed.....I'm SOOOO tired!

This has GOT to come to an end....I just don't know how to make her realize it's draining the life out of me. Any suggestions?