The Bedtime Struggle Pt. 1

When my nephew came home six years ago straight out the womb he slept through the night. One of the most incredible things I’ve seen in my life! I told my sister she is all kinds of lucky and that she should send a praise dance to the man upstairs for blessing her.

Cydney? Not so much. Cydney stayed in the hospital with her mother during Ty he first month of her life. So everyone in the nursery got really attached to her. They would hold her until she went to sleep. When we finally went home boy did we have some nights. I would look at Cydney and say “One of us is going to sleep!” Sometimes it was her, other times it was me.

Being that my fiance was going through cancer I was the one who did the all day and the night shifts. She’d get a bath and I’d try to put her down. She would holler so I had to stand up and hold her and had to walk around.  If I sat down she would holler! So I’d sit up and walk around her and watch the NBA playoffs. Eventually I had to find something else to do. I would put her in the Baby Bjorn and do dishes until she fell asleep. I had to be very careful putting her down because otherwise we’d have to do the same song n dance again for another hour and a half.

A year and a half later. She still goes hard about bedtime. She could be tired as I don’t know what but she’ll jump around, climb in and out the crib, throw around dolls yelling “Baby!” and watch the same episodes of Dora the Explorer so much she can word for word a whole forty minute double episode. And yes she will sing, dance, and climb on me the whole time until she crashes.

I’ve done everything you can. Think of but it doesn’t work! At this point I’ve just chalked it up so I let her do her thing until she passes out. At this point I just do what a responsible parent does: put on earbuds and let her go in to Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba until she or I pass out because I can’t listen to it anymore.

Stay Tuned! Later today I will post photos of the struggle.