Back On Track?

I hope so!

Bailey's sleep has been totally out of whack for the last few months, and it's completely my fault.  When we moved her to a big girl bedroom we also put a tv in there.  It was an extra one we had from college (still works!) and she had been laying in our bed and watching a tv show before bed every night anyway, so Scott and I figured we might as well just put a tv in her room so she could watch it in there and then we wouldn't have to fight with her to get out of our bed and into hers for bedtime.

Big mistake.

See, she was pretty good about watching a show or two before bed and then reading a few books before turning the tv off and going to sleep with her lullaby music playing.  But then I got further along into my pregnancy and Scott started working late nights and it all just went to hell.  Bailey had four books that she used to keep on her night stand for me to read to her before bed.  Four!  And I had to read all four of them.  And they weren't short quick ones either.  And I had to start over if I didn't do the voices right.  And then she wanted to read them to me.  And then, of course, I had to sing a lullaby to her after reading the books.  What should have been a quick and easy bedtime routine started taking longer and longer until we were spending almost an hour JUST on bedtime...sometimes even longer.  The further I got into my pregnancy, the more uncomfortable I became and kneeling on the floor next to her bed for 75 minutes every night was just getting to be too much.  I was exhausted by the time the workday was finished and was doing everything by myself most nights since Scott was working, so after dinner and bath time I just didn't have it in me to fight with her about going to bed every night.  So I started extending her tv time a little bit each night.  And it just kind of snowballed until it got to where I'd turn on the tv,  tuck her in, kiss her goodnight and call it a night.  But then she stopped sleeping.  I'd drag myself up to bed around 10 or 11 and peek in on her, expecting to find her sleeping and sometimes I did.  But more often than not she was still wide awake and watching tv.

Then she started waking up in the middle of the night and freaking out because her tv wasn't on (it automatically shuts off after four hours) and she'd come running into our room and crying for the tv to be put back on.  It got to the point where she was waking up anywhere from one to four times at night, every night.  And she started waking up ridiculously early...like at 5am...even on the weekends.  And the tantrums...OMG, the tantrums!  It was clear she wasn't getting enough sleep.  I knew I'd created a monster but I was just too tired and too sore to fix it.  I knew that a battle would ensue and I knew that, at that point, Bailey was much stronger than I was.

Then Gerry was born and it was even worse.  Between him waking up and her waking up...it was just a nightmare.  The daytime tantrums were getting even worse and she was kind of a nightmare to be around. She was in a bad mood from the minute her day started to the minute she passed out at night. Scott wasn't working nights anymore now that Christmas was over and I knew I had to bite the bullet and get her back on track while he was here to help.  So we went cold turkey. 

The first night was kind of rough and she cried.  We let her watch just one show on the tv before bed.  When I came in and turned her tv off she freaked out.  Screamed and cried and begged.  But I powered through and, you know what?  She got a great night's sleep.  And was happier the next day.

Bailey's bedtime story of choice these days

It's been almost two weeks and nighttime is sooooo much better.  She gets one show, and then she gets to choose one book from her book case for us to read before bed.  Miss Independent also likes to turn on the lullaby CD all by herself, so she gets that started and then hops into bed.  Then we read the book, I sing her lullaby and it's goodnight.  And it works.  She's gotten no less than ten hours of sleep each night (sometimes more) and she's in a much better mood throughout the day.  Don't get me wrong, she still has her moments.  She's two.  But overall things are much, much better.  She's all about the Mercer Mayer book Just Go To Bed these days.  I let her keep it in bed with her when I leave the room (I'd much rather she fall asleep reading than watching television) and I often hear her "reading" it to herself after I've gone.  And when I go in to check on her before going to be myself the book is always right back in its spot on the book case and she's snuggled up and out cold in her bed.  She hasn't woken up in the middle of the night once since we started turning off the tv.  She's sleeping later in the mornings and is behaving better throughout the day, and I couldn't be happier.

Note to self:  do NOT start bad habits with Gerry!  And when if you do, fix it fast.