Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Doing Time



Emma in fighting mode!!!

So in response to all the well wishers of our bedtime problem I thought I would do a follow up post. Emma has not really figured out the whole staying in bed thing yet but has figured out that her daily routine now includes doing time in her room.
I kid you not! She has spent EVERY DAY at least a minimum of 30 min in her room. Saturday it was 5 hours (down from 7 because Kent sprung her early!) and today it is 35 min. On top of that I have not let her watch TV for a week since the days she does time means no TV. WHAT DO I DO???? Let me know if you have any other brilliant ideas.

On the positive she has now figured out how to go to bed and stay in her room when we put her down. It is the 12:45am wake up call to Kent and I that we have. I am getting desperate. We have tried sticker charts, threats, rewards, bribes, timeouts (obviously), spankings, yelling, being nice and going with the flow,the super nanny things where you just ignore and even letting her sleep in our room on the floor.
I feel like that part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Veruca Salt is being tested by the squirrels to see if she is a good nut or not. Am I being tested by my child to see if I am a good nut or not? It sure feels like it!:)

Happy week to you all who are getting more than 4 hours of sleep. Those of you who are not, you may call me anytime from 12:30-2:00am. I am up!

3 comments:

Circe said...

I feel for you because we have had the same problem with Xanthe. It sounds like you've tried everything. It's frustrating! I guess I don't have any advice because I tried everything too. Things would work for awhile, then wear off. Scott's mom claims he got up every night his whole life. I guess you just have to wait it out sometimes. Call me if you're up...so am I!

SSWS said...

oh Emma! She is so great. I love Circe's comments. I think 35 minutes is better than 5 hours! Maybe once she is reading novels, she can just pull those out and read herself to sleep. It works for me! :) I wish I could take a shift so you could get some sleep!

Sarah and Trent said...

Ohhhh my dear Maria, how do you do it? Are you exhausted? Up with the babies too, or are they still sleeping great? I want to just swoop in and let you go to sleep. Maybe there should be a night-time babysitting co-op...
so people can just take turns!