As the parent of a new baby, you don't expect to get much sleep. You're ready for the midnight, 3 am, and 6 am feedings. You know there will be nights of walking floors and humming into tiny ears. As a parent, I handled all of this. I knew what was expected of me and I rose to the occasion.
Once we made it through the sleepless nights with Quinn, we thought we were home free. What people don't tell you is.....it's very likely you'll get less sleep with a young child than with a baby in the house. Eva has become a monster of the night. I have never slept so badly in my life. And I can't help but think that every parent of a colicky baby is thinking "Ha, now it's your turn."
See, Eva was a perfect baby. She rarely cried, slept extremely well, and was just a pleasure to be around. Many, many people told me she was the best baby they had ever seen. Then I became pregnant with Mr. Quinn. Everyone told me that this time I'd get a "real baby". And still, my luck held out. He cried a bit more, slept a bit less, but was still fairly easy to cuddle and soothe to sleep.
For the last nine months, Eva has gotten out of her bed every single night for a little trip down the hall. She wanders into our room begging to sleep with us, for a glass of water, because she's lost her duck/giraffe/zebra (insert favorite stuffed animal here). When we exhausted every single thing we could think of to get her to stay in her bed, we turned to the experts. Yep, the internet. I've read posts and forums and every parenting website out there all guarenteeing success. Nope. Nope. Nope.
I have lost all hope of getting her to stay in bed. We have tried rewards (nothing works like bribery:) , punishments, incentives. We have tried the stick-to-your-guns approach and the cajoling, pleading, begging approach. We are completely out of ideas.
I always thought once your kids starting sleeping through the night you were home free. To date, this has been my biggest misconception about parenting. It's EVERY NIGHT. For NINE MONTHS. And the best part is, she only wants Mommy. Daddy simply will not do in this case. It must be Mommy or we have a tantraum of such epic proportions that suddenly we have two awake screaming children on our hands.
I certainly think this qualifies as my rant for the day. I'm sure there are those out there who can sympathize with me. And I'm sure there are those who are secretly laughing at me, thinking "of course kids don't sleep, you schmuck" All I can count on are the words of John's mom, she said, "Megan, I'm sure she won't go off to college still sleeping in your bed." True. But how many nights are between here and there?
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2 comments:
She may be getting out of bed or attention, especially with Quinn taking some of "her" attention away. Threats, rewards, talks, are all wins for her in that regard. Eris does this same thing.
If it is attention-seeking, one way to deal is to eliminate the reward: anything that could be considered attention. I.e. put her back in bed without talking or making eye contact, and keep doing it if she continues to get out of bed. We have also had to close the door to get her to stay in there. We have taught Eris to get her own water, go potty by herself, and leave her with a water bottle and tissues, her 2 biggest "nighttime wants", so we know she really has no excuse. It seems to work for us, maybe it will work for you guys too.
Actually we went the evil parent route and put a child proof lock on the inside of her door. It has worked wonders!!!
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