After Elodie's first trip to the dentist we decided it was time to say goodbye to her beloved nuk!
Some people call them a pacifier.
Not sure why we went with nuk?
We have been planning on doing this for a while.
I feel like a toddler's sleep stages are the hardest struggles of parenthood so far.
Everyone warns you to get sleep before a newborn.
I felt like Elodie slept all the time as a newborn.
It was a piece of cake compared to the toddler bedtime/naptime struggle.
We have been struggling with bedtime for about a year now.
Ever since she flipped out out of her crib and we put her in the big girl bed.
Tough times, let me tell you.
Just when we think we have it figured out she wakes up a ton at night or doesn't want to go to to bed.
So we have put off taking away her beloved sleeping aid "the nuk".
She also was allowed to have it in the car.
Car naps! Not always a good thing!
We talked about it for a few days before we took it away.
We told her how the nuk fairy was going to come and take them away and give them to her baby sister.
We convinced her that the baby was going to need them and she was a big girl now.
We went to the store and picked out some gifts from the nuk fairy.
She chose a baby (with a nuk in her mouth), baby bottles, baby stroller, and baby chair.
The nuk fairy is verrrrrry generous.
The evening arrived for the exchange.
We put her nuky's in a box with a nice note for the fairy.
Then we went down for dinner.
I found some twinkling fairy music on youtube that played when the "fairy" arrived.
She was so excited.
She ran upstairs looking all over for the fairy.
She found that her box was gone and the fairy left her the baby and stroller.
She seemed very happy and we thought we were successful.
Bedtime came around and she got very upset before bed.
She didn't ask for her nuk but she was mad, sad, and crying.
She got up quite a bit but was finally sleeping by 11.
She slept through the night.
Success???
The next morning she found the fairy left her the baby bottles and baby chair outside her door for sleeping through the night.
Every night since then has turned into a more difficult bedtime routine.
We tiptoe around making her upset.
She fights every aspect of the bedtime routine.
She doesn't want to take a bath.
She doesn't want to brush her teeth.
She doesn't want to read books.
She doesn't want to put on her pajamas.
She does want you to sing Twinkle twinkle 10-15 times and then You are my sunshine.
She gets really mad, sad, and inconsolable.
Screaming, jumping up and down, lots of no's.
Is this just her getting close to the dreaded age three?
Or did we take away the one thing that was calming her down in the evening?
When she gets this upset it takes us an hour to calm her back down.
I have even considered giving her nuk back.
But I won't give in!
Graham usually puts her to bed.
If she gets up after he puts her down she only wants me.
Usually to go to the bathroom, sing her a song, or give me a "boog" (yes to hand me a booger).
When she wakes up in the middle of the night she screams if Graham goes in there.
"I want my momma".
I love rolling my pregnant self out of bed all hours of the night.
How do we stop the crazy anger tantrum before it spins out of control at bedtime?
How do I get my sweet baby back?
Sometimes she snaps out of it for a couple minutes and says "I'm so happy mama".
"Are you happy"?
I feel like I'm living in crazy town.
What do you mean you are happy?
You won't go to bed.
You don't want me to touch you.
There is no reasoning.
You do that crazy cry thing with your mouth closed like you are crying on the inside.
Sometimes you just growl.
Lots of deep breathing happening on my end.
My sweet girl that during the day proclaims me as her best friend.
You grab my cheeks and tell me "I'm so pretty".
You say I'm your favorite.
We sing songs.
You hold my hand.
You give kisses, big hugs, say sweet things to the baby.
You tell me "Happy Valentine's Day" when you think I'm mad at you.
Sweet baby girl! That nuk would put her right to sleep!
Just another parenting obstacle course.
Should we just let you play until you want to go to bed?
Do kids actually do this?
Give you the Ipad until you fall asleep?
I think she would stay up all night and watch cat videos.
Read you Peekaboo Fairy over and over and over and over and over?
We try so hard to not let her get to the "dark side".
I'm assuming this a preview of what "3" is going to be like.
I think mad Elodie needs an alter ego name.
Any suggestions?
Alter ego names always make situations more comical.
I wish every morning she would crawl into bed and fall back asleep like this.
