At 11:00 p.m. Ball clambered into our bed. I was woken by a knee to the head. When I looked up Ball was staring down at me like "Hey guys! What's up?" I ushered her back to her bed, kissed her on the head, and said good night.
At 2:00 I was woken again by Ball in my room, this time creepily staring at me. Hubs said she had been laying in bed for the last few hours singing loudly. Again I ushered her back to bed with a kiss on the head and a goodnight.
An hour later I heard the loud singing from her bedroom. (I was passing in and out of sleep through all of this.) This time I went in and in my stern Mommy voice told her if there was anymore singing she would loose something. (It was almost 3:00 a.m. "something" was the best I could do in my sleep addled brain.) I kissed her yet again and left for the last time. Some time in the next hour little Ball fell asleep.
I would love to applaud my awesome parenting techniques for that; you know, the whole not engaging or making it fun. (You like how that's good parenting at 3:00 a.m., but not so much at 3:00 p.m.?) However, I'm pretty sure it was her own exhaustion that won out, not me.
I know I'm lucky because except to come say "Hi" to us, she stays in her bedroom. At least I don't have to stress about disasters occurring in the middle of the night by an unsupervised 4 year old. That being said, it seems to be a genuine case of preschooler insomnia. This isn't waking up, crawling into bed with Mom and Dad and going back to sleep. Ball apparently never got the memo about "going back to sleep".
I have yet to meet another parent whose kid does this, but Ball has done this once every month or two for as long as I can remember. She is just genuinely wide awake for a few hours in the middle of the night. Thankfully, it's only once every couple months. Now, please hand me my coffee and stick around to share your own sleep deprivation stories with me.
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Everyone in our family is a good sleeper except our 4 year old. He does the occasional 3-4 visits to our bed during the night but it's only once every 3-4 months that he does that. But still wait too often.
ReplyDeleteBut even besides those nights, he's typically still awake past 10:00 and rarely sleeps past 7:30 and takes no naps. Yet he is always filled with way too much energy. Basically he is slowly killing us.
I am currently doing the "Yeah! I'm not alone in this insanity I call parenting" dance right now. But I am so sorry your kid won't go to sleep until 10:00. I think that would officially push me over the edge.
DeleteMy four year old wakes up at about the same time every night, comes in our room and gets in bed with us. One day it will end. Or that's what I tell myself...
ReplyDeleteWe need to believe they won't still be sleeping with us when they are 18. They won't be sleeping with us when they are 18, right???
DeleteMy youngest, who will be 2 tomorrow, is a horrible sleeper....I am still in mommy denial about this, and I try to pretend every night when I put her down that I won't see her til the morning, but no such luck. We are amazing creatures for all that we get done everyday on little to no sleep! Good luck mama!!
ReplyDeleteWe are pretty amazing, aren't we? We are Momma hear us Yawn!
DeleteThe 1yo has been getting up for a few hours to play and just generally kick it old school in the middle of the night, but to hold on to my sanity I try to believe it's a phase. My 10yo doesn't wake up at night but still often LOUDLY sings himself to sleep, which I'll never understand. I'm surrounded by crazies.
ReplyDeleteRobyn, you can completely trust me when I say Ball's habits didn't start like that at all. Ok, well maybe Ball did something similar, but Im 100% sure Maddie will be perfect!
DeleteMy almost 8 year old also sings herself to sleep, loudly. Glad I'm not the only one living with whackos!
Nothing good happens at 3am!
ReplyDeleteOh my sleep stories generally involve getting peed on by a 3 year old. Check out my blog- fire drill
http://misadventuresofmommy.blogspot.com
Nothing good happens between 12:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m. if you ask me. Don't ask my kids please, they have entirely different answers. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteFollowing you from the TGIF blog hop. I hope you will stop by Swanky Baby and follow us too! Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteSwanky Baby
swankybaby.net