You may remember we put her in the toddler bed right after Christmas so that we would have a crib for the new baby who was coming in February. She took to it right away, it was no problem at all..... for the first week or two. Then she realized she could get out of it. Anytime she wanted. So we had a few nights of Supernanny Boot Camp and solved that problem. Then I was put on bed rest, and everything fell apart. Rainer had to put her back in bed about 85 times before she would give up and fall asleep on the floor. She started getting up at the crack of dawn and wouldn't go back to sleep. We found her around the house in the middle of the night - once in the dog bed, once in the hallway under the nightlight. What happened to that sweet little girl who slept for 12 hours straight at night, and took every opportunity for a nap? She had turned into a cranky bear overnight. Literally.
After a few days of this, we decided the last thing we needed when we were weeks (or maybe days) away from bringing home a newborn was to disrupt the excellent sleeper that we already had. So we borrowed a crib, Rainer set it up in the big-girl room, and Talia had a 4 hour nap that afternoon, followed by a 14 hour sleep that night.
Maybe me going on bedrest (and Talia suddenly going to daycare full-time) was too much of a change. Maybe she just wasn't really ready the first time. Needless to say, we were not anxious to repeat that experiment.
Still, a few weeks ago we decided it was time. She is really not a baby at all anymore. It seemed weird to put a potty-trained little girl to bed in a crib every night. So we brought the bed upstairs and tried again.
Talia was thrilled.
It's been a little over 2 weeks now, and so far so good. She just started getting out of bed again at bedtime, but the worst night was only 3-4 times before she gave up and stayed put. She is getting up earlier during the week, but I'm pretty sure that's because she hears Daddy's alarm clock go off, or the shower, or something that signals to her that someone else in the house is awake. So that's fine. We had a minor containment issue during naptime yesterday:
but I sort of expected she wouldn't sleep as she had had a catnap on the way home from the mall at lunchtime.
But the last 2 nights have been weird. Apparently at some point she unplugged her nightlight. Then if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she's scared because her room is so dark, and cries her little heart out. I'm not sure what to do about this. I don't want to leave the nightlight in her room, because I don't want her playing with the outlets, unplugging the light - or even worse, trying to plug it back in. But I also don't want her to be scared if she wakes up during the night. There's also a nightlight in the hall, but apparently that's not enough light to keep her from getting scared. The main hallway light will keep everyone else (ie. Declan) up, so that's not a great option. I'm thinking about one of those battery-operated lights that you push on. (You remember the infomercial, right? Perfect for closets and RVs?) Let's hear your suggestions, blog friends.
3 comments:
Would changing her light to a dimmer switch help?
I assume that using a small lamp would possibly encourage her to climb up to it.
duct tape. ;-)
I wouldn't recommend the light pusher things. We have them and not only do they run out of battery pretty quick= they keep getting recalled. What about something like this?
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mobi-Tyke-Light-Jr.-Night-Light-Green/10072794?findingMethod=rr
We have a small lamp in there but I would worry about it getting too hot and burning the house down if we left it on for her 12 hour nights. (Because that's the kind of thing I worry about.) I think the dimmer may still be too bright.
Nice one, Jackie. I'll have to look for something like that here.
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