When it comes to bedtime, we’ve been fairly lucky. As a toddler, Cordy went to bed without complaint each night, happily chattering away to her stuffed animals in her crib until she fell asleep. Even now she rarely protests much.
When she does object to bedtime, it’s usually expressed as some reason why she can’t go to her bed. Now that the switch has been made to daylight savings time, the sun is still up when she goes to bed at 7pm, leading to protests of, “I can’t go to bed – the sun is still awake!”
But really, going to bed is a minor problem. The real problem is keeping her in bed in the middle of the night. Her sleep pattern is very odd – she usually wants to go to bed around 7pm, then wakes around 11pm for a couple of hours. Around 1am she’s snoozing again until 3 or 4am, when she’s awake for another hour or so before dozing off and on until 7am or so.
The second wake-up is often the hardest, as it is close enough to morning that she sometimes wants to be up for the day, and will wander into our room. Cordy then stands right next to the bed and stares at me until I wake up.
Does anyone else have a child stare them awake? Is it not the creepiest thing you’ve ever experienced?
At this point Cordy will tell me “Mommy, it’s a beautiful day!” with her biggest electric smile, as if that will somehow convince me to get out of bed at 4am. When Aaron and I try to explain that it’s still night and she needs to go back to sleep, we can usually expect to hear “But I can’t – my eyes are open!” or “I can’t – I’m afraid of the dark!” She keeps her overhead light on half the night, so it’s not like her room is dark.
Last night I groggily opened my eyes to see her running up to the bed, eyes wide and with a worried expression. I glanced at the clock, and still remember the glowing green light said 4:24 am.
“Mommy, I saw a ghost.”
“Cordy, there are no ghosts. Go back to bed, it’s still too early.”
“I saw a ghost, mommy. I’m scared – can I get in bed with you?”
That was a first. She’s never claimed to see a ghost before. I asked Aaron what he thought. Usually anytime she wants to get into bed with us, it involves a lot of kicking, squirming, and talking to herself. She never goes to sleep. We decided to let her into bed and see what happened.
For the first time, she actually fell asleep in our bed. And I’m not sure if that was better than the squirming and kicking, because while Aaron still had his entire side of the bed, Cordy pushed me to the edge, giving me about two inches of space. And she snored loudly.
At least one of us got some sleep.
Parent Bloggers and Sylvania are collecting stories of your kids’ best excuses to avoid bedtime this weekend. If you share your story, you could win one of two Sylvania light packages!
The sun shining at 7pm is posing a problem for us as well. And, as usual, as the summer swells on, we start to allow 7 to turn into 7:15 and into 7:30 and we can usually wrangle them in my 8 before the summer is over.
Of course, this past summer was the first time we had to do the school bedtime stuff but my kids have never been allowed to stay up late so it wasn’t as hard as it was for some of my peers.
Good luck with the ghostly tales though….
Every morning begins with me finding Corinne in between me and Patrick. A lot of times, there will be another child thrown in, too. Lots of fun. NO SPACE.
Paul used to sneak into bed with us, sometimes so skillfully I’d wake up with a sleeping Paul actually on my arm.
Fortunately Paul also has a history of sleeping on his own floor, so we made a deal and got him to bring his pillow and comforter in and sleep next to our bed instead of in it. Then in the morning when I got up he could jump in and sleep next to mommy while I was getting ready for work.
Eventually he started sleeping in his own bed almost all the time, but just recently he’s started having occasional nightmares. But he’s okay with us telling him he can sleep next to the bed when that happens, since he’s used to it, and it doesn’t hurt that this means he’s sleeping next to one of the dogs, usually Dodger. It’s hard not to feel safe from ghosts with a big black lab sleeping near you.
I’ve been pinching myself lately when it comes to sleep around our house. My son Andrew has been fighting sleep in his crib for 3 years always wanting to sleep with us, and then when we got his big-boy bed a few weeks back (knock on wood) he has miraculously not woken up crying for me in the middle of the night since. Hallelujah! I’m almost too afraid to blog about for fear I will jinx it.
We havent had any “Ghost” visitors here (yet). But I have had the being stared awake – the kids say they try to wake me up but Im known for giving “Advice” in my sleep, so they usually just stand there saying my name over and over until I jump up. The hardest part here is getting them in bed to stay, and then again in the morning – getting them up and out – for good.
I’m 31 now, but when I was 3-4 yrs old, I remember doing the exact same thing to my mom. I would wake up scared and creep into my parents room in the middle of night. I’d stand right next to my mom’s side of the bed and will her to wake up by repeating “wake up mommy” in my head until she’d open her eyes… I know it sounds creepy, but as a kid, I’d get in trouble for waking my parents up and therefore, the only logical way for me to avoid being punished was to use the “stare you awake” technique because technically, my mom would waking up on her own.
Not sure if your situation is the same as mine was, but if so, it may help to let your child know that it’s ok to wake you up if their scared and not to get upset with them for doing so. This will build trust between the two of you, and with time, they’ll believe you when you tell them there’s nothing to be afraid of in their room.
Either way, I’m a perfectly functional and healthy adult now and no longer feel the need to stare people awake, so have faith in the fact that your kid will eventually grow out of this:)