My child is spending a lot of time in front of the TV lately. I don't like this, of course. In fact, I was "late" by some standards to let her start watching TV in the first place, and I limited her time in front of the tube pretty well, until lately.
She doesn't sleep anymore. Her naps have become shorter: 1 to 1-1/2 hours is all she needs now, but she does still need the nap. Especially since she doesn't sleep at night.
Going down to sleep takes a few tries, alternating turns between Paul and I, but it's not a major battle. (This is notable because for a while she was going down like a charm, soothing herself to sleep, then for a little while it became a huge screamfest, and now we're at an uneasy medium.)
Over the last 3 weeks or so, Ellie has established a new nighttime pattern. Her old pattern was: go to sleep (eventually) and sleep all night until 6:30 am. We didn't love the 6:30 part, but we were fine with the rest of it! Now we put her to bed, then she's up a couple of hours later, then a couple of hours after that, and then with increasing frequency for the rest of the night until by 4:00 or so Paul and I are taking turns with her because she's refusing to sleep at all.
She wants up into our bed, and in the interest of getting some sleep, I'm willing to allow that. But some nights she doesn't want to sleep. She wants to turn sideways and kick me ferociously. If I take her to the nursery and rock her, she'll yawn and relax on me for a while, then it's like someone flips a switch and she's full of energy, wide awake. Ditto if I put her in her bed and rock beside her in the chair.
If I explain that she needs to sleep until it gets light outside, then shut her in her room and leave, she is quiet for a little while then begins knocking at her door and crying. Presumably some parents can sleep through that. I can't.
So some mornings I just put out a bowl of dry cereal and a cup of milk, and turn on the Disney channel at 5:00 am. I'm not getting quality sleep while I know she's up and about, but I just don't have the energy for anything else, after yet another sleep-lacking night.
To be fair, Paul's taking the lion's share of the morning duties, but he's not in much better shape than I am.
Why? Why?! I hope this is a case of Ellie wanting her new bedroom and will resolve itself after she moves, but it will be at least another 2 weeks before her new bedroom is completely ready, and I'm sure there will be a transition time to the new arrangements after that.
Perhaps there's some obvious explanation or option that I'm missing because I'm so tired?
New Release Spotlight: Cara Putman
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Happy release day to author Cara Putman! In this suspenseful novel, Janae
Simmons left the small town of Kedgewick, Virginia, ten years ago to pursue
her...
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4 comments:
I don't know why Ellie is having so much trouble, but I do feel your pain. Hopefully Ellie is just going through some sort of growth phase where her brain keeps waking up to work out some new concept, and that she will start sleeping again soon! If not, it's too bad she's too little to rock and change her new sibling's diaper in the middle of the night, since she's up anyway...
We went though quite a bit of trouble when Charlotte first transitioned to her toddler bed instead of a crib with a side. We've never been big fans of the cry-it-out method, but we ended up having to read to her, rock her, tuck her in, and then shut the door behind us. There's a child-safety doorknob cover on her side, and she can't open the door by herself yet. If she's fighting the sleep, she gets up and pounds on teh door and yells, which really sucks from our side. If we give her a few minutes, she will usually give up and tuck herself back into bed. We're finally to the point where most nights we don't have to go back in at all, but occaisionally she's still wide awake after 10-15 minutes, and she ends up with extra cuddle time.
We mostly leave her door shut overnight (we can easily hear her from our room), otherwise about 2am, she gets up and wanders into our room. I don't mind her sleeping with us occaisionally (though she's a squirmer and a kicker), but she tries to make a regular habit of it, and we'd prefer that she not think of our bed as hers.
Oh God, I feel your pain. Been there, done that. Our first one lulled us into complacency and then we had the 2nd one. She pulled this stuff on us when she was 2 during August of '90. How do I remember? Because I wanted to ship her over to Saddam Hussein and see if he could still be a terrorist after a few nights of waking up every 2 hours wondering where she was. We played a game called "Name that noise." One night the "noise" was our kid on top of the refrigerator getting cookies. Another night the "noise" was her taking a bath. Another night the "noise" was her sitting on TOP of her sister's dresser trying on all of her jewelry. "Sissie's jewry," she said. If we closed the door with a childproof lock, she beat her head into the wall. Not joking. We had to make her a deal. If you don't get out of the room at night, we won't lock you in. And it worked. I still like my idea to conquer terrorism. Send toddlers to the world's terrorists and see what shape they would be in after a week! Good luck.
SeasonalKat, I'm hoping you're right! (And I appreciate you sharing the guilt with me!)
Kristi, I love the image of Ellie taking care of the baby at night! We went through the exact same thing when Ellie transferred to the toddler bed. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple of weeks.
RHE, here's hoping that our number 2 is like your number 1! Er, you know what I mean. Awesome stories! Can't believe she's at COLLEGE.
PPB, thanks . . .
I don't want to jinx tonight, but . . .
Heya SL and Paul--
It will get better. I think the obvious explanation you're looking for is that it happens to most kids at some point between 15 months and 3...if you're lucky it'll work itself out. From talking with friends, I know there are good sleepers and poor sleepers, but they all take a turn doing the 'no sleep til brooklyn' routine sometimes. As a working couple, it's hell...I remember once going about 4 days in a row and never sleeping more than about 2 hours straight. I wanted to sleep downstairs and wear earplugs, but like you said...I can't bear to have them cry.
Teeth, night terrors, all those can be a cause, but I think it's usually just 'a phase' and you just have to accept it.
Be strong! Cam sleeps with us way too often now because he's stronger willed than we are and persistent at the crying and changing rooms game. We have learned some and we're much more disciplined with his brother.
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