Monday, April 20, 2009

No Rainbows Here Tonight

Bah! Sleep seems to be harder and harder to achieve in our household these days. Well, except for Hubby. He still falls asleep pretty easily. But Pumpkin and me? We're both struggling. I know why I'm struggling- I'm pregnant and I still have a lingering cough from that cold Pumpkin gave me a week and a half ago. Nothing like itchy legs and a hacking cough to keep you awake at night. I'm not as certain as to why Pumpkin is struggling, so I'll blame the old "developmental leap" standby.

Tonight started off well enough. She was cuddly and sleepy towards the end of her stories. She didn't protest when I turned off the light. But then she just would not go to sleep. She wasn't comfortable rocking in the chair, so I put her in her crib. She thrashed and whined and kicked and eventually put her hands up to get out. Usually, she then snuggles in and falls asleep in my arms. Not tonight. First she cried for Daddy. When he came and I left, she screamed for Mommy. But when I came back, she didn't want me to hold her, didn't want to lay down next to me on the floor, didn't want me to sit next to her crib. So I tried taking her into our bed. She kicked and squirmed and sang the last lines to "I'm a little teapot". (It took me a while to decipher what she was saying: "pour me out", over and over.)

I confess I lost my cool after a particularly vicious kick and took her back to her crib. Besides, I was hungry. She was quiet for awhile, and Hubby and I were thinking maybe we'd just hit on a magic new technique. But then started crying again. Hubby is in there trying to close the deal now. It is a good hour after her usual "go to sleep" time. It is in fact MY bedtime now.

I am convinced that a big girl bed would help. I could have read her stories in bed, and she would have just drifted off to sleep at the end. (A Mom can dream, right?) The bed is on order. It should be here this week. I hope I'm right, because if it doesn't help, I don't know what we are going to do. Please, can I be right? I promise I won't gloat to Hubby and blame him for not agreeing to get the big girl bed earlier.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, that sounds frustrating. Sleep is particularly hard, I guess because you're trying to teach them to fall asleep, and help them to fall asleep, but ultimately it is up to them (and random chance?) whether they actually fall asleep or not. Pair that with you having trouble sleeping which gives you an extra dose of empathy plus a whole ton of FRUSTRATED...

    Here's hoping you start sleeping better. Insomnia makes me start to feel insane after just a little bit.

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  2. We had such a similar night on Saturday night! But you know that sleep in my house is a crap shoot.

    I hope you were able to take some Tylenol PM and get some decent sleep once she went to bed!

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  3. We took away the crib and put the crib mattress directly on the floor at ~18 mo. She was a climber, just like her dad, and the crib was not safe after that.

    We put our pillow and blanket and fell asleep on the carpet right next to her mattress. Sometime in the middle of the night, we went back to our own bed.

    We did this only a few months before getting a full-size bed in her room. That way, we were both more comfy. After she goes into a deep sleep, you can move back to your own bed.

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  4. Anonymous3:29 PM

    Moving out of the crib made nights easier but made her naps much less predictable. She naps at daycare Mon-Fri, but weekends are still kind of a tossup more than a year later.

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