sleeping battles

so lately bedtime has become a full-out battle. the "getting ready for bed" battle is fought by both Nissa and Ani, but the sleeping battle is always just Ani.

when nissa started school last year, it was hard to get her up in the morning. she was so accustomed to sleeping in until 9am or later; she always was a good sleeper. but slowly, she became accustomed to the early rise time and started waking up early on weekends too (but of course, waking up during the week is always a chore). for a while she could play or get the ipad to keep busy while ani slept, but it didn't last long and soon ani, too, was up at the crack of dawn with nissa. this change was a big part of why we stopped going to sunday school. . . i couldn't take ani, because she was not ready to be in that environment, and adam was still asleep when i needed to leave. it made a nice morning out with just nissa a very stressful production week after week.

well, after a full summer of waking up way-too-early, ani has become fully accustomed to getting up earlier than necessary too, and the days of sleeping in on weekends for me are gone. ah, such is life. but with this change, has come an unfortunate change in ani's behavior. she's cranky, prone to screaming and/or crying, is very difficult come dinner time (often refuses the food offered), even more selective in her hearing (especially as it relates to doing something "for me," like picking up), and going to sleep at night is very, very hard. we tried putting her to bed earlier than nissa, but she often just played or cried until nissa came to bed. we've tried naps here and there (though this is hard for grandma or grandpa to implement consistently), but she usually just plays or cries the whole time and IF she does sleep, that just yields an even crankier ani when she wakes up. (when you didn't think it could get much worse!!)

so yes, i am fairly certain this undesirable behavior has a lot to do with not enough sleep for ani. but if she won't nap and is overtired come bed time, what do we do? at her annual check up, doc recommended an earlier bed time. we did it for both girls - moved bed time up from 8pm to 7pm (it's hard to imagine, but it used to be 9pm). for a little while, it was great - the girls went to bed, i got extra time to actually relax before going to bed myself, life was relaxing. but that lasted maybe a couple of weeks. now, 7pm starts the war between ani and i, and then lasts for an hour or two; my only solace is that we are getting an earlier start. she can't sleep, she wants the light on, she's thirsty, she needs to go with nissa to the bathroom (even though nissa just peed 15 minutes prior), she wants to sleep with us. . . it's a mess.

the battle usually involves a lot of yelling by me, sometimes by adam, and occasionally a spanking. calm talking does not change the outcome, i've tried. bribery with night lights and gummy vitamins is kind of working, as is pleading to let me go to bed, too. nissa just gets caught in the middle, since she's bone tired by the end of the day and truly wants to sleep; but ani is overtired and eager to turn on the lights, climb up into nissa's bed, and play all night.

last night was a pleasant change of pace, but needs to be more the norm than the exception that it was. i laid down with ani in her bed and after a few short minutes, both were fast asleep. i wish we could do that more often. i love ani's little face, breathing quietly, still with the sweet breath of a child.

adam reminds me that we went through something like this with nissa when she was four. i do vaguely remember this. . . so my solution then was to offer to decorate her bed like rapunzel's castle. while we did all the supply gathering, it only yielded new sheets and a glow dinosaur. i still have all the supplies, so maybe we might revisit this idea and give ani a chance to like to be in bed again. cleaning first this weekend, but maybe an ikea/target run too? fingers crossed. we're all so tired.