I am probably going to jinx myself, but I had to mention that these days bedtime had been MUCH easier, especially in the Maddie department. If you know anything about Maddie you would know that she is very STRONGWILLED! VERY! Cute as ever, but determined to get her way. When it came to bed time we fought and fought. Sometimes she would cry until she would throw up. literally. It was awful. She used a bottle of warm milk to calm down and loved cuddling with her blanket, but did NOT want to be left alone. It drove me crazy. Then she woke up many time s night!
With all of Dave and my trips this year I felt AWFUL leaving her, not only for her separation problems, but mostly for the caretakers and their sanity. She faired well, and they did too. FINALLY when we returned from New York we let her fall asleep with Anna for a few nights, since that seemed to help, then we moved her to her room. She woke up in the middle of the night screaming. I put a nightlight in and the middle of the night wakefulness stopped. Then we got into more of a routine. Teeth, Prayer, Book with Anna, to our own beds (a Maddie book there), song and goodbye. When I used to sing to her at night she would fight and scream, now she ASKS for Chi-goh (I am a Child of God) or Jesus (Jesus wants me for Sunbeam… thanks to Auntie Holly for that one). She simply says Night-Night, sometimes asks “sleep?” Yes I respond, “Goodnight.” Then she says “Dank do Mama!” (thank you) and my heart melts. Typically that’s it for the night, sometimes she needs some more milk, if she didn’t eat well, but then she’s out. I recently FINALLY converted her to a sippy. I know she is almost 2 and a bottle is bad for her, but now that you know how hard bedtime was, you’ll understand. Now we need to convert to no milk, but I kinda like the routine for now.
Some pictures I captured of bedtime…
