Sleep Monster
I Google "sleep problems" for my daughter with embarrassing regularity. From the moment my child sprung forth into this world she's been a really needy sleeper. We've struggled with finding a sleep solution that works for us, often resulting in no real solution and cycling through "dealing with the sleep thing" and "hating the sleep thing with the heat of a thousand suns."
I'm currently hating it.
My issue right now, and this isn't the underlying issue, it's just what's pissing me off, is that despite doing the completely mushy parent thing (snuggling her to sleep) she fights and screams and argues and fights and cries and fights for an hour. Twice a day, every day, no matter what we try. And I end up trying extra hard to not to say horrible things (because I'm thinking them) as she refuses to lie still and sleep.
She won't let me leave the room, either. It's the worst part of my day and if I didn't rotate bedtime with my husband, I'd have walked out by now.
I know that we've made a long series of really awful mistakes, like co-sleeping when she was breastfeeding so I could get some sleep, or when my husband convinced me that sleep training her was cruel. Or that time he decided to put her in a toddler bed before she was two years old. And he's the one that introduced The Pallet so he could sleep while she ran around on his nights. Like, I get it. We're completely at fault, but it doesn't fix anything.
I did try the whole "Put her to bed, walk her back to bed until she falls asleep" method, twice a day, every day for an hour every time for six months and it never got easier. The part where they tell you to be consistent and your child will eventually understand that you're serious and give in? Never fucking happened. I went in for surgery and couldn't keep hauling her back to bed over and over again, so I started lying down with her, like Adam does, and here we are, another six months later. It's horrible. It makes me not like her. I dread bedtime and I no longer have the patience to be nice about it.
So, when she's grown and asks me why I never finished my book, I'll tell her it's because she was my little monster kid who refused to sleep.
Ugh.
I'm currently hating it.
My issue right now, and this isn't the underlying issue, it's just what's pissing me off, is that despite doing the completely mushy parent thing (snuggling her to sleep) she fights and screams and argues and fights and cries and fights for an hour. Twice a day, every day, no matter what we try. And I end up trying extra hard to not to say horrible things (because I'm thinking them) as she refuses to lie still and sleep.
She won't let me leave the room, either. It's the worst part of my day and if I didn't rotate bedtime with my husband, I'd have walked out by now.
I know that we've made a long series of really awful mistakes, like co-sleeping when she was breastfeeding so I could get some sleep, or when my husband convinced me that sleep training her was cruel. Or that time he decided to put her in a toddler bed before she was two years old. And he's the one that introduced The Pallet so he could sleep while she ran around on his nights. Like, I get it. We're completely at fault, but it doesn't fix anything.
I did try the whole "Put her to bed, walk her back to bed until she falls asleep" method, twice a day, every day for an hour every time for six months and it never got easier. The part where they tell you to be consistent and your child will eventually understand that you're serious and give in? Never fucking happened. I went in for surgery and couldn't keep hauling her back to bed over and over again, so I started lying down with her, like Adam does, and here we are, another six months later. It's horrible. It makes me not like her. I dread bedtime and I no longer have the patience to be nice about it.
So, when she's grown and asks me why I never finished my book, I'll tell her it's because she was my little monster kid who refused to sleep.
Ugh.
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