Lights, Lullabyes, and Locks

Kevin and I used to look forward to 7:30PM because it meant bedtime; which translated to a few hours of peace before we had to turn in. We could use the time to talk, watch a TV show, or work on a pet project. Since Paige's birth, our evenings have gotten a lot busier.

Of course we knew we'd be spending time in the evenings feeding and soothing Paige, but Reese has been giving us a run for the money at bed time, and now the 7 o'clock hour is something we dread, not look forward to.

It started with the screams from her bedroom for more lullabies, sips of water, and diaper changes, then recently escalated to trips out of her bed and down the hall. Last weekend, we reached the breaking point on several issues: lights, lullabies, and locks.

Lights: Very suddenly Reese decided she was afraid of the dark. Screams of "It's dark. I don't like it." started coming across the monitor. To be fair, Reese's room is very dark at night. She doesn't have a digital clock or even night light, so once it gets dark outside, her room is pitch black. It's never seemed to bother her before, and we thought it helped her sleep. Besides the onset of two-year-old fears, I think her concern comes from her jaunts out of bed. Once she makes it out of bed, I'm sure it's hard to find her way back in the dark. So...we got her a nightlight. But not just any night light. We didn't feel comfortable getting her one that plugged in the wall after her "exploration" of the light socket on Paige's first night home, so we called Aunt Kate and got the skinny on her cool touch-no-plug night light. We found it at Target and it has been a hit.

Lullabies: For the last six months, Reese has been listening to lullabies on her CD player as she drifts off to sleep. We simply set the CD player on track #11 and it plays the last three songs and shuts off. Recently three songs started to not be enough and Reese could be found getting out of bed to try and restart her CD. Sometimes she succeeded, other times she only succeeded in hitting a combination of buttons that effectively paused the CD or sent it into a skipping frenzy. This weekend we also noticed that her lullaby CD was scratched so badly that it no longer played the last three songs without getting stuck. Luckily, the CD was one of a trio Grandma Bailey had bought for her, so we just stuck in a new one. BAD move. Little did we know how attached she was to those three tracks of music. It's taken some practice and convincing, but we now just start the new CD at track one (at night time) and let it run. Lately it's taking her so long to fall asleep, this is our only guarantee to limit requests for "more lullabies!"

Locks: Saturday night was a rough one for Mommy. Paige was up several times to eat and required some serious soothing to get her back down, and without fail, every time Paige was down, Reese was up---and wandering around the house. In the last month, we've tried multiple methods to stop this new habit. Our first attempts involved the no-eye-contact-silent escort back to bed. This works great if your child is seeking your attention. But after two weeks of 20+ trips a night, plus a wakeful baby, we couldn't take it any more. So, we tried time-outs. They worked the first two or three times, but time-out is no match for a curious and sneaky Reese. When trips out of her bed escalated in frequency and destruction (digging through drawers in the kitchen), I called the ball and demanded we get door knob covers/locks for her room. So, on Sunday, we installed three door knob covers: one on the inside of Reese's room to prevent her from getting out, and two on the outside of both Paige's room and the guest bathroom, to prevent Reese from getting in. It's a little bit of a relief to know Reese isn't wandering the house at 2AM, but she still is putting up a fight, and most nights (and naps) can be found (for at least a portion of the time), laying next to the door or trying her hardest to open it. Just this morning, at 5AM, i turned on the monitor to find her sleeping next to her door. At 11PM she was tucked in bed,and I feel badly that I don't know how long she spent on the floor, but I scooped her up and tucked her back in, and she's still asleep now....for the moment.