Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Emma's new game
Emma has always been beautiful about going to bed. We have a bedtime routine that seldom varies and it's created great sleep habits. Tonight all that went to hell. We put her to bed as usual, paci and tigger in place, goodnight kisses, and out the door. Three minutes later, "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy!" The paci was on the floor. M. gave it to her and left. Two minutes later I hear the paci hitting the floor again. "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" I go up and put it back and tell her to go to sleep (she had actually worked up real tears).

I'm thinking I probably let her nap too late this afternoon. And she took two naps instead of the usual one. I get back to the computer and hear the paci hit the floor again "Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy!" Daddy heads up and I follow. This time I've got four pacis to put in her crib, by golly, I'll show her. I come back downstairs, paci one hits the floor. She starts calling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." I let her go on for a couple of minutes. Paci #2 hits the floor. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!..." for another couple of minutes. I was prepared to let her wear herself out. It's obviously a game and she needs to learn the first time that it won't continue. Then I hear M. sneaking up the stairs. That was 10 minutes ago and he's still up there. I think he's reading to her. If her bedtime habits go to hell I'm blaming him. Softy.

UPDATE: After he put her back in bed I could hear him coming down the steps. The paci hit the floor before his foot hit the bottom step. And she started yelling again. We discussed it for a minute and M. decided that she was in no way tired so he was going to get her up to watch some baseball with him (That would put ME to sleep!) She was up for a while and then she wandered in and wanted to see "baby" on the computer. M. opined that her nose had been running all evening and she might benefit from Benedryl. Yeah! Benedryl! So we dosed her with that and I put her back to bed at around 9:25. I took no chances on shenanigans and pulled up a chair next to her bed and sat there not looking at her. After about ten minutes of that she was settled. For good measure when I left her room I cut out her night light. We never heard from her again. We'll see how it goes tonight.
Written at 8:37 PM by Highlandgal.
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