Sleep

I love sleep! I go to bed early and try to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. If my kids are compliant and sleep through the night, I can get even more sleep then that. I also love naps. If I get the chance to nap on the weekends, I take it because sleep is awesome. Now, I have two kids and I work all day, so I rarely get a nap and Dan still wakes up in the night, so I don't always get a full night's sleep. Maybe this is why I love sleep so much.

The way Nicole acts, it makes me think that she hates sleep. She fights sleep, she does not like going to bed. She will come up with every excuse that she can think of to not go to bed at night. Lately, she has been telling us that her room is scary and that she misses us, so she can't possibly go to bed. Bedtime is just awful when it comes to Nicole.

We do her routine at bedtime: pajamas, potty, brush teeth, prayers, and bed. And then the "game" begins. I tell her every night that if she stays in her room and doesn't cry, I will go in and check on her. This used to work with her, it made bedtime easy, but it doesn't work anymore. So, I go to my room and Nicole follows me in with some "need." I put her back in bed. Five minutes later, she is back with her blanket and a stuffed animal asking to sleep on my floor. I put her back to bed. Repeat who knows how many times before I finally get tired of it and shut her door (thereby locking her in). Then, within 10 minutes she is asleep. She is so tired at night, but she fights it until I finally have to force her to stay in her room and go to sleep. This is crazy to me. If you are tired, you should sleep, especially since sleep is awesome.

None of this phases Dan anymore. He does his own thing, ignores Nicole and falls asleep in his own time. No complaints by Dan as long as he has his mobile, pacifier, and seahorse.

But, the funniest thing about Nicole is that as much as she hates going to bed, she equally and oppositely loves napping. Nicole will often put herself down for a nap when she is tired and would, if we let her, sleep for 3 hours in the middle of the day. Nicole loves naps. She loves sleeping during the day. But, if she naps too long during the day, she stays up until 11pm at night. So, we have to try and wake her after 30 minutes to an hour in to her nap. Trying to wake her from a nap is like trying to wake the dead. She is like a little rag doll that does not wake when I move her around.

I am really bad at waking Nicole up from naps. I feel bad about waking her and I want to wake her gently, but this does not work. Matt is much better at waking her. He is okay with using a louder voice and sits he up so that she will wake up. I have a different method. I release Dan on Nicole. Dan is the best at waking her up. I put Dan on the bed with her and he goes into attack mode. He crawls on her and pats her face and yells at her until she wakes up.

I just wish that Nicole would treat bedtime like she does naptime. That would make our life immensely easier. But, I realize that kids don't make life easier, they just make life better.