So Leah has decided to change up our usual nap/ bedtime routine. What we have done in the past is either my husband or myself would lay Leah down in her crib, put a blanket over her and give her another one, kiss her forehead, turn off her light and turn on her sound machine to white noise (alright it's really just static on the radio but same thing). Then our youngest would drift into slumberville for the night. Yes, I loved it. I would say thank you every night for two kids who loved sleep as much as I do and feel sorry for those parents who weren't as lucky as I was. Joke's on me, I might become one of those parents. These days either my husband or myself lay Leah down in her crib while she screams. We try to put a blanket on her as she kicks her feet saying "no!". We try to give her another blanket while she yells "no!". We try to kiss her on her forehead as she shakes her head back and forth. We flick off her light and turn on her white noise and close the door as fast as we can before Leah stands up in her crib screaming. Ok, it's not like that every night, sometimes we can read Goodnight Moon to her while she is calm before she stands up screaming. It took me the longest time to figure out what my youngest daughter's problem was. She wasn't teething. She couldn't have been hungry with the amount of food she normally eats. She had already gone poop. She had her friends in bed with her. Sometimes, when I myself wasn't plugging my ears and hoping the neighbours weren't calling the cops on us, I would start to cry. I didn't know what to do. I was scared that if I constantly went into her room and calmed her from what ever was scaring her, I would then be starting a bad habit!!! My daughter would never learn to sleep on her own. She would always need me to help her fall asleep. She would never be able to have a normal childhood, one full of sleepovers with friends or family members. She would never leave home to go to college. She would never get married, or if she did I would still have to help her fall asleep while her husband tried to sleep himself. Forget that my husband and I would never be able to go away somewhere, alone, just the two of us. No one would want to watch Leah if this was how she was before she fell asleep. There was no way I could start this horrible habit that would never be broken, even though Leah is only 17 months old!
Well, I would go in and check on her, my heart just couldn't take it. And most times I would find her standing up screaming and once she saw me she would calm down. And during the early, early, not even close to be morning times when she woke up and screamed, I would take her back to bed with me (gasp!) where she would fall asleep. It was actually my husband, (I think he reads parenting books when I'm not looking because he is the voice of reason), who suggested that maybe Leah is going through some type of separation anxiety. Impossible since I am with her all, well most of the time. But she doesn't have all of my attention the time. Well Dr. Spock (my husband) was on to sometimes since there is something called nighttime separation anxiety ( I will throw in naptime separation anxiety as well). Sadly, I beleive Leah suffers from that which means I have to go to her pretty much anytime she screams to assure her that everything is ok. Hopefully the books are correct when they say most kids outgrow this by 2 years....
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