Sunday, October 5, 2008

Good News and Bad News.

About last night, and my littlest little....


The good news is that, with all of the posters that we made and hung up in her room, and with another dose of the Monster Spray (and the corresponding chant) administered, she had NO bad dreams of monsters last night.

YAY!!


But.....

The bad news is.... she STILL woke up three times in an hour (between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m.) this morning.

Not so yay.

She'd fallen asleep in her room, with her television and light on. I shut off the light, plugged in an extra nightlight, and decided to leave the TV on, but turn the volume almost all the way down, to see if the extra light, and the "company" from the TV might make a difference.

The first time she woke up, she probably saw the TV still on, realized she'd fallen asleep watching it, and came out into the living room to look for my husband and me. When she couldn't find us, she came into our room, looking for me. So... I put her back into her bed, and asked her if she wanted me to leave the TV on. She did. She also wanted her light on. I personally thought it was too much light for her, and tried to talk her out of it, but she'd have none of it. So, I unplugged the second nightlight, and plugged her desk lamp back in, turned it on, left the room, and said a little prayer before crawling back into bed.

I flicked the channels on my TV, found "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" airing on the Food Network (I LOVE that show!), and settled in to watch it for a bit. I had JUST dozed off when my bedroom door swung open again, for Round Two.

This time, she was complaining that she wanted the light OFF. *ugh!* I bit my lip, salvaged my last thread of patience, and shut the light off, after asking if she wanted the second nightlight back on. She didn't. But, she DID want the TV back on (she'd shut it off when she got up out of bed). So, I turned it back on, made sure the volume was just above a whisper, tucked her in, gave her squishes and smooches and left the room, returning back to Guy and Triple D's.

I just started dozing off again, when... you guessed it. Round Three began.

She came into my room again, THIS TIME needing to go potty. Okay. So, I lugged out of bed AGAIN, and went into the bathroom with her, trying to dismiss the fact that I'd suggested to her, BOTH times before, that she use the bathroom before getting back into bed, only to have her vehemently deny my request. Yet here I stood, a full hour later, listening to her whizzing in the toilet. Another testament that children should listen to their mother.

We repeated the tucking in, squishing and smooching, and saying goodnight process one more time, and I dragged myself back to my side of the bed. By now, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives had been replaced by another show, and I was too tired to even care to find out what it was. I shut out the light, shut off my TV, and prayed to God for sweet salvation.

She didn't enter our room again until sometime after sunrise. I couldn't tell you what time it was, and frankly, I didn't care. It was my husband's turn. :)

3 comments:

Tanya said...

Awww, I'm sorry to hear it's still an issue! I hope you all get a good night's rest ASAP!

Mama C. said...

Thanks. I really don't know what else to do for her. I'm SOOOOO glad that the "monsters" are all gone, but still... the waking up thing is getting, well... tired (sorry!).

The funny thing is, a couple of nights ago, she "only" woke up once, at around 5:15, which is awesome, right? BUT... I still had a restless night's sleep, because I've become so conditioned to waking up with her so many times a night, that every little noise woke me up! Silly, I know.. but true, nonetheless.

Robin L Greenslade said...

I hope your precious little one gets into a regular, monster-free, all night sleep pattern soon.

We had a very similar experience with our daughter, and she was almost 6 before she {{{finally}}} decided to sleep all night long.

BTW ~ on the nights my hubby is not home when its time for our daughter to go to bed, we STILL sometimes use MonsterSpray in our house. (and our daughter is almost 16) Granted the moster spray is now a bottle of a lavender fragrance, but its still called MonsterSpray in our house.....