It’s half past 3am now and I cannot sleep. I am extremely tired but I cannot rest my head down, I cannot catch a wink because my little girls are sleeping in our living room tonight.
This was what happened…
For months, we’ve been struggling to tuck Renee into bed, and keep her on her bed through the night. Daddy sleeps in the same room with the girls (while I sleep with our youngest next door), yet she just won’t stick to her bed.
For months, we’ve been struggling to tuck Renee into bed, and keep her on her bed through the night. Daddy sleeps in the same room with the girls (while I sleep with our youngest next door), yet she just won’t stick to her bed.
Last night however, she slept decently early (not too far off bedtime) but Shanice started wailing time and time again, and woke Renee up in the process. For 3 consecutive nights she had been waking up at unearthly hours saying that she had nightmares. It seemed like it at first until I probed further… seemed like excuses to snuggle in with a parent.
Tonight particularly, she said she didn’t want to sleep in her bed. I asked her why and she reasoned that since Renee got to sleep with daddy, she should too.
So the hubby had been allowing short cuts for the Meimei to reduce the disturbance at night and the Jiejie was feeling indignant. In a fit of anger, I sent the girls to the living room and told them to sleep there for the night since they didn’t like their beds .
To my surprise, meimei was the one who took it at her stride and slept through the night on the play mat. Jiejie however, kept wailing until daddy lost it once, I blew up twice, and she finally gave up and slept at 2am.
If it was a consequent for bad behaviour, I am not sure who was paying for it – the child or everyone else in the house.
Honestly, I would if I could carry them both to their beds once they were asleep. But I couldn’t and I shouldn’t because it was a lesson they needed to learn. I wanted them to learn to appreciate what they have and not live in envy – Why meimei gets this and that and I don’t?
This whole sleep training thing has been long overdued and way to painful for everyone at home. I cannot wait for it to be over.
My little girls, please don’t hate me. One day you will understand how precious sleep is. I haven’t quite slept well since the day Shanice was born. You need to understand that your bedtime does not equate to mine. I sleep much later as I need to catch up with work. I need you to sleep on time so that I can get some sleep too. You really need to help me here. Unless you want a short tempered, sleep-deprived mom-ster screaming at u throughout the day, please do yourself a favour – Stick. To Your. Beds.
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Updated at 11.30am:
The kids are now camping in the living room, nicely tucked into their ‘sleeping bags’.
Not sure if I should be happy that they don’t seem to have hard feelings from the ‘camping’ experience last night or worried that the girls would prefer to spend tonight in the living room too. -.-!
