Getting our kid to sleep is one of the most ridiculous rituals.
Now that Kurt has gone back to the Lake to finish packing I am on nighttime duty with Iza, which is normally Kurt’s gig and I am finding that he has created a pattern of insanity.
She requires the normal stuff – bath, brushing teeth, pj’s, 2 books and then her sleep sack just to get ready which is a chore in itself. Then due to her father’s coddling ways, you must lay with her until she is completely sound asleep. When I say sound asleep we are talking about:
- 10 minutes of babbling in the dark
- Another 10 minutes of flopping around to get out unused energy
- 30-45 minutes of spooning in the nook of my arm. (If you move her too early she will wake up after a ‘cat nap’ of sorts and likely not go back to sleep for a little bit, or we have to leave her to cry it out for another 15 minutes which is torturous for everyone.)
All in it is typically about an hour and 15 minutes every night to get this kid to bed.
But in the last few days I have mastered the process by finding this perfect moment: Just when the breathing starts to slow and I can feel her body go limp in my arms, her death grip loosening on my hands, I can transport her to her crib and she will only cry/whimper for a few minutes. It is right around the 10-minute mark (into the 30-45 minute spoon stage), so that buys me at least another extra 20 minutes a night.
A few things have come up in my discovery of this:
- I am super in tune with my daughter and her breathing now, more so than I wish to be
- She is the most stubborn, willful child and there is an element of manipulation that I, as a mother have to give into in order to just survive the experience
- Sleep appears to not be high on her priority list, but somehow it is high on mine
- My husband is an enabler
🙂 I suppose we all have our own ways.
