Not a sleeping beauty

Kate is not our sleeping beauty. In fact I would call her a sleeping nightmare when it comes to bedtime lately. We went camping a few weeks ago and since it was SO cold, Kate slept between me and The Dad in our sleeping bag. A few days after we got home her sleeping habits got really bad. She would cry and cry when we put her in her crib and say, "Daddy, Mommy, (where) are you?" Now, I'm not one to instantly pick up a baby when they cry at bedtime but when it disrupts the sleep of the other kids I have to do something. Scott came out and asked what I was going to do about Kate, so I had to get her.

One night I rocked her for an hour and sang to her. When I would stop singing she would say, "again, again" so I would have to continue singing or she would get really upset. Oh, and I had to sing the right song, which I had to figure out, or she would get upset. She was also holding something and every time she would fall asleep and drop it she would wake up. Clearly, this wasn't going to work as a permanent solution.

For several nights after that, The Dad laid in our bed with her until she fell asleep then he would take her to her crib. That worked for a few nights until she woke up in the middle of the night and figured out she wasn't in our bed and cried for 20 minutes.

The next night, The Dad decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed because, "maybe she is feeling too confined, and Scott was sleeping in a bed at 20 months." (Yea, that was out of necessity, John was about to be born and needed the crib.) Bad, bad, bad idea. The Dad tried to get her to go to bed but of course it didn't work so he laid down with her in our bed and then moved her when she fell asleep. The problem was when she woke up at 3:00 and crawled out of bed. She tried to open our door but couldn't so by the time I got up to get her, she was opening the boy's door. That would have been all I needed, 3 kids awake at 3:00 in the morning. Luckily I stopped her and tried to rock her and sing. Didn't work. The Dad took over and put her in our bed. After an hour and a half of her playing in our bed and kicking my back, I left and slept on the couch. 20 minutes later, I heard The Dad putting the crib rail back on the crib and she was back in the crib by 5:20. She cried for 20 minutes then FINALLY fell asleep.

After that night, The Dad decided it was time to lay down the law. Unfortunately, Kate has him wrapped around her finger and she gets away with anything and everything with him, obviously. Don't worry, I've been telling him for quite some time that she needs discipline. Finally, he agrees. To make things worse, I think Kate is hitting the terrible 2 stage. Even though she can communicate really well, she want and thinks she deserves everything!

The first night of "laying down the law" actually wasn't too bad and she only cried for 20 minutes and didn't wake up in the night and tonight she only cried for 5. I think we are on the right track I just wish we could have got on track the first night instead of going through 6 bad nights.