At 6 months old i took the dummy off my daughter because it got to the point where she wouldn't sleep without it. Mean mummy? Maybe, but within a matter of days sweet little angel was going to bed without so much as a whimper and dreaming of heaven in no time!
Bed times were a pretty smooth process. Bath normally occurred before daddy got home. Once daddy got home we would have dinner, maybe some yoghurt for afters then brush teeth, read books and go to bed.
When baby girl went from a cot to a bed at 18 months it took her a whole month to realise she could leave the bed without being lifted out. Once she discovered this, bed time became a little frustrating.
Tucking sweet child in was definitely not the last time you saw her that night. Often you'd just make it to the lounge to put your feet up and little but loud feet would creep up the hallway to delay sleep. Some nights you would make the trip down the hall a dozen times to put her back in bed before she would stay there and drift off to sleep.
The stage after delaying sleep was to get out of bed and lay down in the hall and fall asleep.
It was frustrating at the time but i'd happily go back to that stage because these days I cannot get said child to bed before 8pm and just because child is in bed at 8pm definitely does not mean she will go to sleep.
After saying "good night, have a nice sleep. love you and see you in the morning" said child will proceed to talk to her toys or read some books. When she gets bored with this she will creep up the hall to remind her dad or I that we've forgotten to do something. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that she had a list of "things i can do before bed" and intentionally doesn't say anything when we're putting her to bed so that she can pop out later to remind us of our mistake.
A couple of visits later and depending on who has had the worst day, mummy or daddy will get cross and warn clever child that next time we hear from her she will get put in her room and the door will get shut.
That is normally the last time we hear from her but it doesn't mean she goes off to sleep.
If we're lucky she'll sneak into our room and fall asleep in our bed.
By 10pm 2 weeks short of a 3 year old is asleep.
Could all this be avoided by shutting the door to begin with? Putting to bed earlier? Taking away toys and books? Maybe.
It frustrates me and can make me upset that my child can't go to bed and do the one thing she is meant to do but i'm not alone. I've googled it. Plenty of mums are in the same position and plenty of people have wonderful advice. Some of it obvious, some greatly appreciated. Others, well, chocolate milk and a muffin before bed is unnecessary - i won't go into why i think that piece of advice can be shelved.
We wont be changing bed routines and i will continue to complain. (It makes me feel much better!)
I just cross my fingers and toes that sweet child has her own baby girl who likes to push the boundaries as much as her mummy did!!!!
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