Tuesday, June 28, 2011

And it was silent...

So, dear readers, you may or may not know (because I've moaned about it here, on various forms of social media, by text message or maybe by phone) that my kid has not been going to sleep. She's been going to bed and for the last three or four weeks we have a decent system of bedtime routine and then stay in your bed in place, but she would not go to sleep.

We're big believers in the you-can-lead-a-horse-to-water-but-you-can't-make-him-drink child rearing philosophy. We can make our child sit at the table during meal time, but we can't make her eat. We can make our child sit on the toilet before we go out, but we can't make her pee.

Apparently it applies to sleep too. We can make her go to bed, but we can't make her sleep. Once she figured out that she had to stay in her bed and be quiet, it was much more manageable, but mornings were horrendous. To the point where I got the daycare to shorten her nap in hopes that thirty minutes less nap would equal thirty minutes earlier to sleep. Yeah, right. Then we starting skipping breakfast. I'd roll her out of bed and into her clothes. We'd sleepily get her hair and teeth brushed and we'd stumble out the door to daycare. By the time we got to daycare she was awake enough to eat her breakfast.

I do blame a percentage of this no-sleep thing on the NHL...almost all of the Canucks games ended around 8:00...bed time...and our building is on a busy street near the Granville bridge. It got noisy outside our house. Especially when the Canucks won. J would get up and watch all the cars and celebrating folks. So, now that the playoffs are over, two months of disturbances pretty much every other night are over too.

Back to the no sleep. The other part of this is that Alex has been home in the evenings for a while and the last two nights he was on bedtime duty. Sunday night didn't go badly, but there was resistance from a toddler. Last night, I had to go out and you would have thought the world was ending. The same kid who runs sobbing down the hallway after Alex when he leaves for work at night crying "Daddy, don't go to work. Stay home. Daddy, don't go." was adamant that she wasn't staying with Daddy and only Mommy knew how to put her to bed.

A very tearful little girl walked me to the elevator and wailed all the way back to our apartment with Alex. What J didn't know was that I was just going to a strata meeting in our building, so I asked our next door neighbour when she arrived if she could hear J...nope. Thirty seconds after I left and all was well.

But I was convinced she'd still be awake when I got home just a few minutes after nine. Because it's been ten o'clock or later every night for the last two weeks. I opened the door very, very quietly and there was no noise. I tiptoed in and Alex appeared from our room, talking in his NORMAL voice. J had been asleep for over half an hour. Needless to say, this morning was very smooth, we had time for breakfast at home and J was in a great mood...

I don't know how he did it, but Alex is amazing. I'm now trying to convince him to figure out how he can be home EVERY night for bedtime...

6 comments:

  1. Sleeping issues are some of the most stressful, aren't they? As a parent, we're so exhausted, and all we want at the end of the night is a tired baby to go to sleep so we can relax!

    Things will work themselves out. That's my parenting belief. :-)

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  2. Is there nothing we can't blame on the Canucks? ;)

    Kudos to Alex.

    And J totally deserves a sing-along of Molly Alone next time I'm over :)

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  3. and here I thought the sleeplessness passes as the kids get older. Darn it! Your husband sounds like a magician though. Maybe he can be home a few evenings in a row and break the habit? Fingers crossed that works!

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  4. @Christine - sleeping issues are a pain...I think because they either impact your own time or your own sleep and unless you're some kind of saint, most parents get grumpy when they don't get enough of those things....

    @AndreaClaire - nope, not the Canucks, just the NHL...they're the ones who changed Vancouver start times from 7pm to 5pm...

    @Melynda - last night was so pleasant...unfortunately sleep didn't come as quickly tonight, but she did stay in her room and she was relatively quiet. I just checked her and she's sleeping on the floor, not in her bed, but at least she's asleep.

    @ylanthe - Our sleep issues have been different as she's gotten older (and more difficulty). J was a really good sleeper until sometime after Christmas...she still is a good sleeper - once she's asleep, she's asleep, but it's convincing her she needs to be asleep that's the hard part right now. I wish Alex could be home a few nights in a row, but unfortunately his job doesn't allow for that right now. He will be home early tomorrow night and I'm going out, so hopefully whatever magic he worked last night, he can conjure up again tomorrow night!

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  5. Yay Alex! Is he a cat whisperer as well? I'll send Munch over..

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