Don't you just hate it when you make a decision in parenting that turns out to be a huge mistake?! And don't you really hate it when you want to blog about it but you can't get into your freaking blog and the webmaster wants you to send him/her an email telling him/her what YOU did to cause the error. Um,hello, all I did was click on "New Post" - otherwise, I didn't do a blasted thing! Why is it always the end user's fault? Granted there are a ton of loose nuts on keyboards these days, but I'm not one of them!
Okay, that bunny trail rant is over. Back to my regularly scheduled blog...
I'll type this up in Notepad and then copy and paste it once the blogger decides to let me back in. I've already rehashed this twice and the blogger has lost it both times - I have half a mind not to share it with you just because of that! Oops, I'm ranting again.
ANYWAY (sound like F.R. there), two weeks ago I allowed Elizabeth, my 22 1/2-month-old, nap on my bed. She slept for four hours and I wasn't about to look that gift horse in the mouth! I'll take it!! For the rest of the week she asked to nap on my bed and to fall asleep for the night in my bed. She never freaked when I moved her provided she was already asleep! Well, her daddy wasn't here at night and her baby sister wanted to be fed - so I allowed her to fall asleep for the night on my bed. Then when Brad was here one night, he didn't like that idea so I had to put her to bed in HER room. Yikes! I knew it wasn't going to go over well with Elizabeth - and I was right. The first night, she cried...no, she *screamed* for two hours. The next night, it was four hours. Yes, you read that correctly - four hours. Then it dropped dramatically to thirty minutes. Then it was 15 minutes - ah, we can live with that! Until she woke up 45 minutes later and absolutely freaked out. She was beating her head against the walls, the door and the furniture (you should see the bruises - they're horrible). It was a nightmare for all of us.
A friend of mine suggested I try rocking her to sleep. So, the night after the head banging, I did just that. She was still crying for my bed. Finally, in an act of despiration, I asked her if she wanted to nurse. She said,"Yes, Mama!" so I cradled her as if I were going to nurse her. She snuggled into my chest (not nursing) and went to sleep. Did she just need to be "the baby" for a little while instead of "the big sister"? I don't know, but it worked! When I moved her to her bed, she woke and started crying. I knelt by her bed and held her - "shushing" in her ear. She drifted off to sleep again. That always worked to calm her when she was a baby and it still works - I was taken back to a night she was four months old and I ended up outside with her doing that very thing - holding her tight and "shushing" in her ear.
On Thanksgiving night, she was to have spent the night with my mom. She was overly tired from not having a nap and I ended up bringing her home. That night, she didn't cry for my bed - she cried because she wanted her cousins! The next night, she went happily to bed after four bedtime stories (mommy was stalling, not her!)!!! Are we back in our routine?! We did have one relapse over the weekend, but nothing of the headbanging proportions. Hopefully we're through the hardest part.
Another friend of mine said, "Ah, parenting! Pass the Tylenol." I say, "Ah, parenting! Pass the hard liquor." And make mine a double, straight up.
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