Bedtime Stories (Part 2)

 

Baby Coming Soon

 

I knew we needed to figure something out before the new baby came. There was no way we were going to be able to sit with her for so long with a newborn around. It was nearing Daylight Savings time. We ended up keeping her up longer. We told her we were going to sit by her door instead of on her bed and had to throw in some Super Nanny every once in a while. After a while we told her we weren’t going to sit by the door anymore.  And for the most part this worked.

Hunter and Monsters

 

Hunter’s arrival and Zoey’s bedtime drama is a blur.  At some point in Hunter’s first couple of months Zoey started seeing monsters.  They arrived around the time we started letting her watch Disney movies. Sleeping Beauty and Snow White both movies she loves to watch had something to do with the monsters arrival.  One night she must’ve had a dream about monsters because the next morning she told us there had been two lions, a witch and a monster in her room.  She was very afraid.  That day Joe sat down at the kitchen table with her.  Together they made a paper knife that she could use to slay the monsters.  They also made some posters that said Go Away Monster, etc.  This didn’t completely appease these new fears.  I would have to go into her room and kick the monsters away.

Cat and Brother

 

When Hunter was about 6 months old Zoey went through a stage where she didn’t want to be alone. She wanted our cat Romeo to sleep with her. It took several minutes of petting Romeo to get him to lie down and stay on her bed. If she stayed still it was fine.  They would both fall asleep—yay!  One night Zoey asked if Hunter could sleep with her.  I decided then was as good a time as any for them to start sharing a room.  So, then she needed Romeo and Hunter in her room.  But she wasn’t staying still and Romeo kept getting up. And then she would get up and run after him.  After a while we just couldn’t do this anymore. I told her that Romeo couldn’t sleep with her anymore. She was upset at first but got over it much quicker than I thought she would. 

Don’t Wake the Baby

Again, we struggled to keep her in her room.  But the stakes were higher now with Hunter in there. Each night I hold my breath and pray that she won’t wake him up.  On the nights she wakes up Hunter one of us take Hunter into our room to get him back to sleep.  Zoey gets upset that Hunter was gone.  Taking him out became her consequence for waking him up.

What Else Can We Try?

 

Then I made a chart. I told her if she didn’t get out of bed then the next morning she would get a sticker. She stayed in her bed for seven days straight! We bought her a little Tinkerbell doll for doing so well.  I thought I was on to something.  I made a chart for a month because if she was going to do so well I didn’t want to have to buy a toy each week. She only got one sad face (and I added an extra box on her chart that she had to make up) for the whole month.  After she filled this chart she picked out the movie Tangled as her reward.

Present Day—Here We Go Again

 

Then we started a new month.  She spent the weekend away from home (which has only happened a couple times before) and Daylight Savings time is here again and throwing her off. Here comes another Zoey curveball.  Just when I think I have it all figured out! It’s so frustrating.  Out of the last 14 days she has 6 sad faces on her chart and almost a week to make up for.

This girl just doesn’t want to go to sleep.  It wouldn’t be so tough, at least at this point, if she didn’t share a room with Hunter. Then I wouldn’t have to worry each night if she will wake him up or not.  Her being in there limits us to what we can do to keep her there.  

Why Why Why?

 

I don’t know if we have these issues because she is a night owl and stubborn like her parents or if we did something along the way to cause this. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. But all we can do is the best we can.  I have learned though and don’t plan on going through this with Hunter.  I already have him on a sleep schedule.  We put him down at the same time every night and he is tired and ready to go to sleep at bedtime.  What a concept!  And you can tell when he’s tired and he actually takes naps.  Zoey never really seemed to get tired and didn’t really ever take naps. They are very different kids, which is probably a good thing in the sleep department.  I’m hoping he’s less stubborn than Zoey!

As quickly as time and phases of childhoods go this is all just a drop in my bottle of time. We will have harder things to come I’m sure. It just feels so huge, never-ending and exasperating when you are in the trenches. But this will end and the next stage will begin.

I’m sorry for these two really long blog posts right in a row.  I’m not planning on them being so long in the future.  I’m just trying to look back and work through these sleep issues for my own sanity.  As I type this Hunter is awake and in our room with Joe and Zoey is rolling around and wide awake in her bed. When will this end?  All I really want to scream is “Zoey just go to SLEEP!” And I just might do it!