Cut the Blue Wire!

What's wrong with this picture?

The language explosion in the second year of life is amazing.  We have video of Sabrina on her second birthday in April, and while she's able to talk pretty well, the last few months have seen her increase her vocabulary by leaps and bounds.  Short sentences come flooding out of her mouth now at an almost Sarah Palin level of comprehension.  (OK, OK, I know some of you like Sarah Palin and I admit comparing her to a toddler isn't fair.  One of them is only now learning about the world and using newly developed language skills to form simple sentences, and the other one is a toddler.)  But we've now reached a new level: Negotiation.

Bedtime in our home as I like to define it is the period of time between getting Sabrina's pajamas on and enjoying a glass of wine on the couch.  Sometimes it's quick and painless, and sometimes...well sometimes it isn't.  On those occasions that period can be filled with crying, screaming, and stomping of feet, and that's just from me and Gregg.  When she doesn't want to go to bed, she let's you know it.  Last night, however, a different scene was set.

The normal routine is pajamas, teeth cleaning ("Brusha-Brusha"), saying good night to Papa, quiet reading of a bedtime story (or two or three) in her room, lights out, one or two songs, and off to sleep.  Since Gregg cooks the dinners, my job is the story-song-sleep bit.  I'll usually sit in the room with her for a little bit until I'm sure she's about to head off to sleep and then quietly step out.  If you don't hear anything from her within about a minute, you're golden and Malbec here I come.  Otherwise, let the games begin. 

Last night I tip toed out of the room, shut the door, and headed down the hall.  I stopped and waited to see which way tonight was going to go.  After about a minute, her door opened a crack and she stood there in her most innocent pose wearing her Frog Princess nightgown and clutching her blanket.  Silent.

I walked over and she didn't come out of her doorway but just stood there.  I bent down and gave her a kiss and said "What's the matter Chipmunk?".

"Daddy, I can't sleep anymore."

"Well you haven't been to sleep yet, so I think you should try again."

"Um, Daddy?"

"Yes Sabrina?"

"Um, I can't sleep anymore."

You know how every action movie has that inevitable scene where the hero is trying to diffuse the bomb and it's down to cutting the red or blue wire, and you hold your breath knowing if he cuts the wrong one all hell will break loose?  That's what went through my mind as I cut the parental blue wire by taking her hand and saying, "Well let's go back in bed and see if you can sleep some more".  I braced for a tantrum, or at least a scream, but none came.  Silence as we walked back into the dark room towards the bed.

"Daddy?", she said softly, now sitting on the bed.

"Yes Sabrina?"

"I don't want to go to bed."

"I know that, but everybody is sleeping because it's night time, and that's what we do at night."

"Is Ripley sleeping?"

"Yes, Ripley is sleeping."

"Is Chase sleeping?"

"Yes, Chase is sleeping too."

"Is..."  We now launch into a list of almost every person we know and what their sleep status is at the moment.  I realize she's stalling, but we're back to cutting the blue wire.  Let her ramble and look for a way to get her back in bed, or cut her off and risk her wrath?  When we get into inanimate objects, I make my move. 

"Is moon and stars sleeping?"  A-ha!  She messed up--she could have started on a long list of Sesame Street characters and kept this up all night, but instead she asked an open ended question.  I pounced on her inexperienced negotiating skills.

"No the moon and stars are up in the sky watching us while we sleep to help us have good dreams.  Here why don't you lay back down and I'll tuck you in."  Take that!  I bet her head is spinning on her rookie mistake.  But wait...she's pulling the trump card...the most cliched, hackneyed phrase in the history of the war on bedtime...her head half way to the pillow, she looked up at me and calmly checkmated her opponent by saying...

"Daddy I have a drink?"

Noooo!  She's taken this thing nuclear!  Before I even realized I'd swallowed the bait she was sitting straight up and I was half way to the door to get a cup of water.  How did this happen?

She did lay back down after the water, and three choruses of Winnie the Pooh's theme song, but reappeared at her door several times after I'd snuck out and we had to repeat selected portions of our dialogue.  Gregg was laying in bed watching TV, and getting ready to go to sleep early anyway, so all three of us won in our own way.  Sabrina got to go cuddle with Papa, Gregg got a quiet night cuddling with Sabrina as they fell to sleep together, and I...I got what I wanted in the first place.  An evening to myself with a glass of vino...Hmmmmmm.

Late night shenanigans make for a sleepy breakfast.

Free Range Chicken 4...Silence of the Lamb

Bedtime stories over by 8:35...Cuddle time lasts for 10 minutes...Minimal protestation on getting in the toddler bed.

By 9:15, Gregg's already asleep and I'm downstairs alone in the darkened family room enjoying a glass of Malbec and hard Bavarian pretzels while watching the season premiere of Dexter (again) on DVR.  Ah, pretzels, quiet, wine, and a serial killer.  Who could ask for anything more?

**And she slept all night, but I did find her on the futon again this morning.  Works for me.

Free Range Chicken 3...The Toddler Strikes Back

OK so here's the thing.  There's something about that toddler bed she doesn't like.  I think it's the feeling of being more exposed.  She's OK laying in there as long as we're near her but if we attempt to leave the room, she jumps off and runs over to us.  Last night, after a story on my lap, we tried it again.  She'd lay down and look like she was drifting off, but as soon as I got up to leave, bam, here she comes.  At one point she got up and went to the futon on the other side of the room and I thought OK, I'll leave her there and see what happens.  A minute after I left the room, she started crying.  We went back and forth on this for about an hour and a half, after which Gregg took over.  Eventually, he took her in bed with him trying to just get her to fall asleep.  By 11 PM he came downstairs with her, saying "Not only is she not going to sleep but now she's bouncing off the walls.  She needs some activity time to drain the battery".  Was she ever.  For an hour, she was buzzing around the living room, climbing, jumping, and chatting non stop.  Does she have an espresso machine hidden up there someplace?  Eventually we snuggled up on the couch and by midnight she fell asleep hard.  I put her back in the toddler bed and there she stayed until 5:30 when Gregg checked on her before leaving for work.  When I peeked in at about 6:30, she had moved to the futon and was sleeping there.

We'll try it again tonight.  We talked about putting the crib back together, but it's just too dangerous having her climb out of it.  We don't want to push her, but we think she's ready, and she'll get it soon enough.  She'd better; I'm running out of pithy titles for these posts.

Free Range Chicken 2...Return of the Toddler

Forget all the happy talk in last night's post about getting her to sleep at 10:30.  At about 3 AM, Gregg woke because he heard a noise and looking at the video monitor, noticed she was not in the bed.  Apparently, she was on the futon that is in her room "la-la-ing" into a toy microphone.  Yes, not only does she wake up but announces it to the world.

She ended up back in bed with us, which means of course it's time for gymnastics class.  Bed jumping, tumbling, kung fu grip neck hugs, all the best moves until sometime around 5.  I'm not sure he even got back to sleep, because that's about when he gets up for work.  I on the other hand happily hit snooze until I was late for work.  Miss Thing?  Woke up chipper and happy.  I'll put a stop to that tonight.

Toddla Please!

Well after sleeping like an angel both through the night and when we first put her down, this last week or so has been murder.  Sabrina has decided she doesn't want to go down easy, and we've been staying up later and later.  Sometimes it's crankiness, sometimes it's screaming, and sometimes it's just wanting to play.  Putting her in the crib and letting her cry it out doesn't work because she's out of there in an instant.  Trapped like a dog and barking at the gate, she wants out of that room.  Then there's the getting up in the middle of the night and eventually coming to bed with us.  Acrobatic gymnastics for two hours, laughing, and babbling, then finally sleep.  I blame it on the molars that are coming in on both sides of her mouth.  We'll see what happens in a few days when her new toddler bed arrives.  I just hope it lets us all get some more sleep!

Side note, we tried on her dress for the wedding we're going to in mid October, and it fits perfectly.  I'm sworn to secrecy, so you'll have to wait until then for the big reveal. 

Silent Night

Well for the last two nights in a row, Sabrina's been sleeping all the way through. On top of that, the "walk around with me for an hour until I'm sleeping or no one rests" routine has also been suspended. The nighttime routine and getting her to sleep is my job; waking up and dealing with her until morning is Gregg's. The last two nights I gave her a bottle, about 7 ounces, at 10 PM. I make sure everything's ready by then--bath done, bottle made, diaper clean, lights turned way down low, bedroom door closed, humidifier full and on, and soft lullaby music in the background. While she's eating, I'll softly tell her a bedtime story. If I can't remember one besides the Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks, we'll just go with a Gilligan's Island episode or how Superman was rocketed to Earth as a baby to become a mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper...c'mon it's not like she cares what the story is, just that her Daddy is telling it to her. I'll burp her and cradle her for about ten minutes, but then sleeping or not, in the crib she goes. I think the only reason I've gotten away with it so far is she's so obsessed with finding her thumb she kind of forgets everything else. I'm sure we're not all the way there yet, but it's a good start.

(Don't you just love the dress she's wearing in the above pic?)

Back to Work, Back to Sleep

Ah well, paternity leave is over and it's back to work tomorrow. My job gives us a week off, and since I worked from the hotel in California I saved it until now. I took off on Friday last week, and since Monday was a holiday I was able to steal that extra day, but it's all over now. Don't ask why I'm up at midnight...oh wait, I know why, because somebody decided to pitch a fit about going to sleep and just drifted off a few minutes ago. Of course I did her bath, put on her nighttime lotion, fed her, tried the swing, walked around, sang (OK that one I admit would keep anyone awake. That Scottish Yeti on TV sings way better then me...) but nothing seemed to work--the screaming continued. Her Papa walks in and carries her around for 3 minutes and BAM...off to dreamland. Oooh that little stinker--I'll get even with her!

What Happened to the Baby We Brought Home?

Burp!

Sleep now, wake later

So sweet and nice, quiet, a perfect angel...until it's time for those two daddies to go to sleep. OK I get it. Everyone says "Oh you don't get sleep with a baby around". I knew they were exaggerating. It can't be that bad. Well she woke up last night about every 45 minutes or so. It is that bad. We're taking turns on night duty, I went first. Gregg actually slept through half of the screaming! She's crying, and I can hear him snoring over it. Great.

Turns out the little one gets real gassy. After you feed her she'll give giant burps. But she also gets hiccups from gulping her food down. The baby book says infants who have hiccups probably started having bouts of them in the womb, and she'll just have to grow out of it. It doesn't say when; I'm hoping the answer is "by Thursday". But who cares. She's ours and she's adorable. My sister got her this little mini lounger chair and she does love that. Tonight's Gregg's turn. Let's see how much better she is with him!