The Sleeping Games

  Most hours of the day we feel like pretty great parents. We have a sweet, well behaved cutie pie who loves to play in the dirt and dance to live music.
  We know we are lucky although we also like to think we might have a little something to do with it.
  But then bedtime rolls around. And as if we fed a magwy after midnight, our sweet little girl transforms into a gremlin.
  There is screaming and demands for milk or water or mama or mommy or mom at decimals I worry are keeping up the neighbors. Or we play the ever so effective, ‘I have to go potty’ routine.
  We look at one another and wonder -where did we go wrong? We know we slacked in the consistency department, because at some point in the night it inevitably feels like getting a little sleep is better than getting none, and so you cave.
  We've been fighting this battle from the get go. For all her wonderful traits, sleep has never been one of them.
  Even in the hospital nurses looked on me with pity.
“Sorry honey, they usually at least wait until you go home to not sleep.”
  They knew what we were in for.
  As a newborn we tried it all. The crib? Laughable. A big no go in the bassinet. Bouncer. Swing. Moses basket between us in bed. We tried it all.
  The only place she would sleep was on my chest. I read books and listened to other mommies, but nothing seemed to work for our girl, and I just couldn’t bring myself to let her cry more than an hour.
  To this day, most nights she cries, usually ending up on my lap and falling asleep there and then a very tired mommy carries an ever growing girl  in her bed. Other nights I find myself awkwardly crammed in a toddler bed, trying not to fall asleep and hoping Layla does, so I can sneak out and watch the Daily Show.
  But no matter how she ends up in her bed, every night at three she quietly slips in our room, climbs up on the bed and snuggles down between us. I’ll admit I do love the snuggle but then you have these flashes of a twelve year old still crawling into bed with you and you cringe. Are we setting ourselves up for more challenges ahead or will this phase work its self out?
For now we’ll take one night at a time. Tonight she has gone to bed with no tears, she’s been up to potty and for a drink of water, but I promised I’d come in and give her a snuggle after the Card’s game and it seemed to do the trick. For now. But who knows if what worked yesterday will work today let alone tomorrow. I’m sure one day we’ll look back and wish we had it as easy as we do now. I’m sure some night in the distant future we’ll lose sleep because she is out with friends or driving late at night. But the upside will be that maybe then we will get to watch all the grown up TV we are stockpiling since there doesn't seem to be a sleeping toddler in our near future.