Monday, February 24, 2014

A Recap and Plea for Help

We had another relaxing weekend at home.  I actually stayed in yoga pants and while it felt good mercy. I. Am. Ready. For. Spring.  No wait.  Scratch that.  I'm ready for Summer.  Let's skip straight through that rainy, sniffly nose time of the year to bikinis, ice cream cones, humidity (yep I said it) and pool days.

Hank and W were up at the crack of dawn for some reason Saturday morning and Carsyn and I slept late as usual.  I figured the kids would take good naps so I embraced the 60 plus degree weather and went for a run at the lake.  Albeit glorious it also kicked my tail.



I came really close to hitting my 20 mile a week goal….maybe next week.  I'm hoping to get back into hard core running like I was before Christmas because since then I'm looking like a 5'11" blonde version of Kim Kardashian.  Without the boobs.


I whipped up W's favorite pasta for dinner.  I have to give a big shout out to him for keeping the kids out of the kitchen for a whole glorious 45 minutes while I enjoyed some good jams.
 

I need to back up here and add a little Friday night occurrence.  Y'all know by now after Hank goes to bed around 9:30 or as late as 10:30 on weekends Carsyn has her own little time.  I've always felt fine about that.  Sometimes we play, sometimes I pop in a workout DVD and she watches TV.  Lots of times I give her a snack too because she's such a picky eater.  While I wish she was in bed close to 11:00 I'd quite frankly rather let her play or watch TV contentedly than fight with her for an hour trying to make her go to bed.

Anyway, at midnight she stated she was starving and asked me to fix her 5 hot dogs.  I felt so bad because she never says she's hungry so I fixed her one and she inhaled it.  I actually fixed her two more and she ate them too.  Love her heart.  I sent her to bed at 1:00 am with a belly full of hot dogs.

Fast forward to Saturday night.  Around midnight I started asking Carsyn to go to bed.  She came up with every excuse and I pulled out every trick I had.  I told her no story.  I told her if she sat up late we would not be able to go to church Sunday.  No dice.  I finally got her in bed around 1:00 and she came stumbling down stairs around 1:15 to find me watching TV.  Her little eyes lit up and she said she wanted to watch my show with me.  She ran and got her blanket, crawled up beside me, and wrapped her little arms around me before I could come up with an excuse.


(insert the I'm losing my mind slowly but surely selfie here)

She gladly went to bed around 3:00 am.  As did I.

We all woke up after noon on Sunday.  Hanging head in shame here.  Poor Hank is teething and Carsyn was just worn out.  I hate missing church.  I really should have drug her tail out of bed and made her go anyway, but I'd feel sorry for everyone in the nursery who encountered her wrath.  Sister needs her sleep.

So we had a lazy Sunday.


(is that not a picture of some lazy kids or what?)

And Sunday night it happened again.  The excuses of why to not go night night started coming around 11:30.  I was determined to put her in bed.  I told her if she didn't cry I'd read her favorite story.  Of course she said ok and then started whining the minute I started to leave the room.

After I left I could hear her crying and saying mommy did not love her.  I went back in her room and told her in so many words mommy loved her and needed her to sleep because she was losing her mind. Kidding.  Maybe.

I told her I loved her and wanted her to be happy.  And I needed her to get some rest to feel good.  She said she needed something to make her sleepy.  She asked for a toy to play with and I gave her one.

She played with Minnie Mouse for about an hour.

Honestly, I've tried everything.  I started letting her watch shows on the iPad until she fell asleep and that works until she pushes a wrong button.  She sleeps with a night light.  She is potty trained and can get up, go potty, wash her hands, and get back into bed with no problem.

W thinks its all because she knows I"m still up and wants to be with me.

Rosie thinks she needs to get up earlier.  I'll insert here the days I do wake her before 9:30 it is not pretty.

Me?  I just don't know.  I do think she doesn't like going to sleep with other people being up.  I was always like that I guess.  And honestly, 90% of the time I"m ok with her sitting up until midnight.  Its the 3:00 am bed times that get to me.

Also, I think cabin fever is getting the best of all of us.  When we can get outside to play again I think we'll all be more exhausted and less irritated with each other.

So, I'm asking for your opinions.  And advice if you got any.  Is it a phase?  Am I doing something wrong?

5 comments:

  1. My son is the same way..if I'm up he is up and afraid he'll miss something. I tried the iPad/movies but he'll only fall asleep to those if he's super tired. I find those just keep his mind up and therefore will not fall asleep. I'm cracking down on a bedtime routine now. Bath, then book and bed. Sometimes my hubby/I have to lay down with him until he falls asleep but we're slowly working on transitioning out of that. The only thing I can offer is that routines always work if we're consistent :)

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  2. My only advice as I have always been really strict on my kids sleeping. Bc I need my mommy time in the morning. But...at some point I think you have to think of the future and what may not seem like a big deal now, will turn around to haunt you once kindergarten comes! It's so hard to consider healthy habits for a year or two, but can EVEN imagine how terrible it'll be to try to "fix" this once school time comes?? Also, be strong!!!!! Our kids will say terrible no good awful things to us. But that is usually when we know we're doing the right thing. I love to snuggle with my oldest once his little snoozes off...but I know it's selfish to think of myself and how good it feels to snuggle. I need to be focusing on keeping him healthy...and make time to snuggle during the day! I'll be praying for you and your sweet girl!

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  3. You are a great mom! I am proud of you for putting everything out there good and bad! I really enjoy reading your blog because you are honest! My sister's oldest is a girl and complete night owl! During the week she has school so she goes to bed early.....but on the weekend you bet your bottom dollar she is tucking everyone into bed. Maybe that can be a compromise to start with for your daughter? Let us know what works for you guys!

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  4. we just went thru this with kennedy. not that late, we are a 8 oclock bedtime people; not really by choice but they did it for us; & we stuck to it. We didnt get just excuses from kennedy, we got CRAZY. Throwing things, banging at the door screaming. Long story short it ended up being from her being scared cause my MIL let her watch a scooby doo marathon haha we laid down the law & i finally asked HER what MOMMY could do to help her sleep, she relied she wanted her door kept open. So here we are 6 days in & bedtime is a dream again. I would say its a phase. If her being up that late works for you, then it works for you; if 3 am doesnt, it doesnt; I would just keep being persistent that it isnt acceptable & even if she isnt sleeping she needed to "rest" at whatever time you choose for her to go down. Not telling kennedy to sleep & rather "rest" helped as well!! hang in there momma! your doing a great job!!

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  5. I'm having a similar issue with Kendall. Not so much staying up, even though she goes to bed closer to 10pm, but the whole not wanting to go to sleep in her room, in her bed, all by herself. It's exhausting. I even lie! I tell her that I will be back in ten minutes to check in on her and rub her back. 9/10 times she falls asleep. Hopefully it's just a phase for C. I wonder if you could start a new bedtime routine and just talk to her about it. You could even let her pick out the routine?? Let us know what you decide!

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