As a parent I expected it to be difficult. I knew there would be challenges. I know there are worse things I will have to over come as a Mom later down the line. But, I must say that right now, Bedtime is the Battle at the Home front these days.
My son was a dream to put to bed. My mother was astonished when she came to visit in March. Then In-laws were amazed when they were here in December. Me, I just assumed all kids did this. I would take my bounding bundle of joy upstairs and we would follow our nightly routine. Teeth brushed, puppy in hand, blanket tag in hand (whole other blog, but basically my son rubs the tag in between his two fingers as he sleeps), pick out a book for me to read and a book for him, halfway through the story we would switch books leading me to paraphrase the new book as he always picks out a Disney book that is about 30 pages long and takes 20-30 minutes to get through. We would say our good nights, give each other a kiss, he would wave bye bye, I would shut the light out and that would be all I would hear of him till 4 or 5 am, at which point it is too late to battle and I would just put him in bed with me for the remaining time I had to sleep before work.
It was great. Blissful even. Like a clock where the arms go round everyday just the same as the day before.
Then, as the Big Steel Stick known as CVN-71 pulled up pier side in Norfolk, unbeknown to me, a gust of wind blew past my little man and took with him the ability to go to bed without a tragic fight.
It all began about 2 weeks before my husband return. K wouldn’t go to sleep with the lights off anymore. I had talked to his sitter about one of the older boys telling him scary stories and about monsters and asked for her to watch out for that. A child who has no fear all of a sudden telling me that Dragondaurs (yes Dragon + Dinosaur) lives under his bed. Seeing as we have no books and/or toys and/or movies about either of these beings I can only assume that it is another lovely thing he picked up at Day Care, along with a cold or a new knot on his head.
As much as I disliked it, I could handle the light thing. Kids go through stages and we have the light dimmers, so I would just dim the light all the way down and when I went to bed shut it off. The rest of the routine stayed the same.
Well until Daddy entered the equation again.
It is partly my fault for humoring a 2 year old. And I am hoping partly the fault of the US Navy for taking my husband away for 222 days to protect the rights of a seemingly unappreciative American population. Whatever the reason, K no longer wanted to go to bed alone. I humored him by sitting at the end of the bed while he drifted to sleep. It gave me some quite time as well and gave me an opportunity to read my book (Twilight…not sure if I am hooked yet, but it is a good read). After about 15-20 minutes I could exit the room with no resistance. I should have never honored this request. I should have known it would be my ultimate doom.
After two weeks of this edge of the bed sitting he was no longer falling asleep. Rather every attempt you would make to get up he was wide eyed and bushy tailed like he hadn’t been laying down, seemingly snoring for the past 20 minutes. It was frustrating and tiring. I should have known that he would see how much more he could get away with. So the battle begins…
Saturday night was the 1st official battle. I pronounced myself to him as the winner before things really even go going. Up and down, back and fourth to bed. Over the baby gate to the hallway the little feet would run every 10 minutes or so. I resolved myself to sit just outside the door. Made it quicker to get him to bed. Then as the furry within me started to boil over after 2 hours of this, spanking was introduced. Up and down, back and fourth, crying, screaming, telling me to get my book and sit with him. Then I decided I couldn’t spank him anymore. My heart was no longer able to stand it…so to time out we went. He would cry in the corner then come and say he was sorry. I would ask if he was ready to go to bed and he would say yes. We would get upstairs and he would ask me to get the book and sit with him. No I would say you have to go to bed, do you want to go back to the corner? The response was always yes. Finally at 2 am he fell asleep in the corner. This was a bad idea on my part. The second I took him upstairs he was awake and wanted me to stay. I laid him down and fell asleep on the floor in his room. The little stinker won!!
More to tell…stay tuned!
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