We thought we had finally done it. For three nights in a row last week, Stacy and I slept through the night for the first time since Zoe was born. Zoe is turning four this week. It was amazing.
Zoe didn't begin sleeping through the night until Scarlett was born. Scarlett had not slept through the night without either getting us out of bed to put her back to sleep or getting in our bed and poking at us while we tried to sleep.
One late night while sitting in the girls' room trying to coax her back to sleep, I noticed how noisy it was. Most of the noise came from the top bunk where Vicki sleeps. The rustling of covers and the mattress pad combined with her teeth grinding would be enough to keep anyone awake.
The next night we moved Scarlett's toddler bed into the toy room next door. That night, she slept all the way through. She'd done that before, but usually only when medicated or overly tired. We weren't ready to get down on our knees and praise the gods of slumber yet. Then she did it again. Then again. The following morning was Saturday and all three of our girls were in bed until after Stacy and I got up. I honestly can't remember that ever happening before.
But what the gods of slumber grant, the gods of slumber taketh away. Three nights ago Scarlett got up again. She seemed to be having nightmares. The next morning, Stacy got out of her that something on the wall was scaring her. She sleeps under my Pez collection. I suppose it can be scary to think of all those plastic smiling faces looming over you when you're two. That night as she was laying down, Stacy and I took all the Pez down while she pointed up at a spot near her bed saying something to the affect of "[S]He scared me." (She talks great, we just don't always understand her.) We assured her that the Pez wouldn't scare her again and headed off to bed.
No luck. She was up three or four times before we relented and let her sleep with us. Last night was the same. She pointed at the same spot of empty shelves and told us the same thing. She let us turn out the light and leave the room, but I could tell she was ill at ease. Sure enough, last night was as bad as the other two.
We're back to where we started, only more disappointed after that oh-so-brief window of real sleep last week. My next thought is to take down the shelves, but I don't know if the source of Scarlett's fears is something we can actually see on the wall.
Anyone else have a similar experience that would like to share some possible solutions?
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4 comments:
Perhaps it would help to fill that spot with a favorite toy or picture.
That's a good idea. We turned her bed away from the spot and propped up one of her favorite stuffed toys, Thumper from Bambi, next to the bed. She got up twice last night The first time she cried for a couple of minutes before nodding off again. The other, Stacy had to go in and lay with her for a few minutes. We'll try the picture suggestion tonight. Thanks!
Hey Bro,
You might try throwing a sleeping bag in there and spending a couple of "nights" with her. That may get her in the habit of going to sleep without getting up. Start by going to "sleep" the same time as her and then transition away by going in there later and later.
Oh, and quit showing her those scary movies! :)
More good ideas, thanks. I'm a little worried that she won't calm down enough to sleep if one of us are in there with her, but that's similar to what we had to do to get Vicki to sleep through the night. It's worth a shot.
We can't stop letting her watch the horror movies. She thinks Freddy Kruger is hilarious. Seriously, we keep nightmarish cinema to a minimum. We've even cut out many of the Disney movies with anything remotely scary to try and curb the nightmares. The other two girls went/are going through the same thing.
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