The bagooz is definitely two now, and giving us a little more run for our money than she has before. One piece of evidence is the various stall tactics she has learned to employ in certain situations, generally involving bedtime. Ever since our early months of sleeping troubles, she has generally been a gem about falling asleep. This is probably due to her BFF, the "plug" aka pacifier. Lately, however, the process is taking much longer because she has figured out some nifty bedtime tricks to avoid sleeping.
Tactic 1: "I need a gink!" (gink = drink)
I don't know how she learned this one, as we had never voluntarily offered her a drink before she went to bed, but one night she asked for it and I complied. Ever since then, she will usually wait to request this one until after we've put her down for the night. Once I arrive on the scene with some H2O, she will dink around with the cup and generally draw out her "gink" as long as she can until I threaten to take it away.
Tactic 2: Pants Removal
She doesn't usually use this to draw us in but it's definitely part of the bedtime horsing around. Lately she's figured how to take her jammie pants off, and she throws them over the side of the crib. When we find her without them in the morning and ask "What happened to your pants?" She says, "Umm...they fell off."
Tactic 3: Select the Longest Book You Can Find
Tonight's choices were "Go Dog, Go!" (50+ pages) and The Bible. Thankfully hers is an illustrated version with New Testament stories only; Mom gives a one sentence summary for each story. Many nights Dad and I will tell her, "Choose a book...but not the Bible tonight!"
Tactic 4: Lure Them In/Fake Sleep
Often times Laura will lure us in with one of the following:
A - Running/jumping around in crib
B - Throwing the plug overboard and then calling, "Ah need mah PUG!" (sounds like a southern accent)
C - "Mom mom mom mom mom mom mom"
Upon entering the room, she immediately hits the mattress in a textbook fake sleep, because clearly she knows that's what she SHOULD be doing. Fake Sleep Tactic has also been used in other handy situations, such as the other day when I asked her to go pick up something that she had thrown. She snuggled up on the floor in a fake sleep and said "I can't hear you mama, I'm sleeping."
I will not be in a hurry to move her to a big girl bed - she's already figured out most of the shenanigans; just think about adding the ability to get out of bed! Ditto for ditching the plug at night. We are currently trying to nap without the pacifier (since somehow she has done this with NO troubles at daycare for about six months) and it is NOT pretty - imagine a combination of the stall tactics with hysterical sobbing. So far we're 2 for 4; napped on Thursday and Friday, cried for more than an hour and didn't nap on Wednesday and Saturday. Wish us luck!
2 comments:
Ugh! Breaking Ethan of his binky was terrible. He was a great sleeper and had been in a big bed for almost six months when we took his away. He came out of his room constantly to the point that we finally put a lock on the outside of the door knob so he couldn't get out. It sounds horrible, but we were at wits end. He slept for almost two months on the floor of his bedroom right in front of the door. Finally one night Jeff's parents came to babysit and he stayed in bed and has been fine ever since. Good luck! You can do it!!
Kristin
Breaking the nuk habit is not fun! Owen cried for hours. We eventually caved and had to give it back. Two weeks later he gave it up without any problems. Lincoln didn't even care. Connor on the other hand is a thumb sucker. Don't know how we're going to take that away yet...
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