Sleep Rituals

Earlier this week, my friend Dan blogged about the rituals that young kids have that are so specific, unless you're the parent, you have no chance. The details he shared about his own daughter made me giggle, so I thought I should write down what our kids do so I can embarrass them later.

About 3 weeks ago, Ian would go to sleep then wake up about 3 hours later. He'd nurse, then go back to sleep. Rinse and repeat. Finally fed up, I took him in to the doctor to make sure he was perfectly healthy before beginning sleep training. While there, I mentioned our sleep issues to the doctor. She mentioned that Mommy was no longer allowed to get up to comfort him in the night and that only a bottle of water should be allowed if he was actually thirsty. She quickly became my new best friend. We started that night. I was banished (gloriously) to the extra bed in the basement where you can hear absolutely nothing. After one horrible night, Ian adapted quickly. With only a few nights of minor regression since then, he's been sleeping 10-12 hours at a time. The only ritual he needs is food or milk sometime shortly before bed time and put him down drowsy. Other than that, he could care less.

On the other hand, when it comes to Anja's rituals, some things are seemingly easy. Jammies, book, hygiene, bed. Simple formula. Then the details start to come into play:

Book: One long or 2 short. Books that are downstairs must be read on the couch. Books found upstairs are to be read in her room. Unless it's her 4 book set of Curious George. That is read on our bed and is either 2 or all 4 of the books. She must pick the order and put them back in the box. Also, she wants to hold whichever book you will be reading or have already read while you read the other. And if you're reading Curious George and the Rocket Ship, she must turn the book and read "Blast off!" at the appropriate time. Oh, and if she only gets 1 book, you can bet that she'll want a story once she's tucked in. The story must be told by Mommy and is almost always Snow White and Princess Anja go to the park.

Hygiene: Brush hair. Simple. We must use her pink princess brush or blue comb or pink comb. But you must brush her hair while she's brushing her teeth. She gets to pick her toothbrush and gets it wet. Then we put on the My Little Pony toothpaste and she "brushes." Once we finish brushing her hair, she picks out a different toothbrush for us to use to actually brush her teeth.

Bedtime: Then it's tucking in time. This must be accomplished by Mommy. She must have her kitty and kitty's blanket. Also, Mickey, puppy, and penguin. God help you if she's hidden them. Especially the penguin. She only sleeps with one, but has around a dozen penguins in her room. Once tucked in, the door must be left open "little bits."

Bedtime v.2, 3, and 4: Approximately 5 minutes after tucking her in, you will likely here little footsteps approaching the stairs. She will come out of her room with her Kitty and Kitty blanket in hand and stand or plop down at the top of the stairs until you notice her existence. She will not usually speak, just stand/sit there quietly. Luckily, she's a heavy breather. At this point, she informs us that there are Scaries in her room. We must then escort her back to her room, tuck her back in, wave our arms around while saying "Get away, get away, get away!" and then put a spell on the door to keep out the Scaries by waving our arms up and down (only once) while saying abracadabra. Then say good night, close the door "little bits" and leave.

5-10 minutes later, she'll appear again. This time is for a variety of reasons. Now the threats begin. 1st threat, we'll close the door. If she appears again, we put the toddler lock back on the inside of her door. At some point in time, she'll fall asleep.

Anja is definitely one of those kids with rituals, but the rituals only need to take place if she's at our house. So when you start fighting over who is going to get her for an overnight, might I suggest your place?