Etta is still awake. She has been screaming and crying for the last hour. At first she tried stall tactics (she needs a clean diaper, she needs to go poop in the potty) but now her tired little brain is beyond that. She is in the full-on trying to guilt momma mode:
"Dadda, where are you? Dadda, where are you? Addie, where are you? Momma, where are you?
Me. Etta. Where are you?"
One the one hand it makes me chuckle because it is really cute and intelligent of her. On the other hand it is hard not to feel like I am a bad parent who is abandoning her lonely child.
Last night it took her about an hour of on-and-off screaming to fall asleep as well. I attribute this to two things:
-Matt is gone on a hike. He is always the one who does bedtime with her, so she misses him. Last night she was asking/crying for him a lot.
-Also, we had an unfortunate incident over the weekend where she ended up sharing a hotel bed with Matt. As some of you may recall, we had some seriously frustrating sleep issues with her for quite a while. No matter how desperate things got, though, we never brought her to bed with us. So this weekend was an unprecedented event. But I think she now wants others in the same bedroom as her, and even in the same bed.
9:20 - she quieted down for over 60 seconds. I was hopeful she had worn herself down. I am trying to decide how much longer it will take her to scream herself down. I could go in there, but then at some point I have to leave and then the screams will get worse again. I could rock her to sleep or something, but that is not a good long term solution because she will just want that on other nights. Am I a pushover or am I a hard-ass? My skin has gotten thicker over time and my tolerance to the screams has increased. Especially for a kid this age who I know is perfectly capable of falling asleep on her own. But of course it tugs on my heart-strings.
9:30 - all has been quiet for a few minutes now. I had been planning on watching a chick-flick since Matt is gone and last night I was too busy unpacking. If only there was a guarantee that a child who stays awake an hour late at night will sleep in an extra hour in the morning!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What a little smarty pants! Ransom has tried the potty stall tactic before bed as well (at least I think it was a stall tactic). I think a busy weekend often leads to sad declines in sleep performance, if it's any consolation ours was pretty pitiful too :( Hopefully Etta's week gets better!
ReplyDelete