Xiaoniu 小妞

Tonight we are off to a much better start. Emelia had an excellent day at daycare. We all woke up and started the day at 6am when my alarm went off. Emelia was playful and alert. Her daytime nap was a solid 2 hours long, which is normal for her. However, when she got home from daycare it was very apparent that she was absolutely exhausted. A night of so-so sleep with plenty of fussing and a normal, active day really took it out of her. She was ready to crash at 5pm, but it was just a little too early.

We did what we could to make sure she ate something and got plenty of play time with her. We want her to know that we still love her and are not mad. By 6:10 we were upstairs getting ready for sleep. We made it half way through Good Night Moon before she was getting really fussy. I did my duty by calming her down and getting her into bed. She went without any trouble. That was until I walked out of the room. Then she started to cry.

Thankfully, she only cried for a short bit. Twelve minutes after tucking her in she was quite and asleep. That is a drastic improvement over the just over an hour ordeal yesterday. She woke up an hour later at 7:20, but went back to sleep after a reassuring from dad that everything was okay. Her fussing died out in less than 2 minutes.

I have my fingers crossed in hope that tonight goes well. I have faith that she’ll learn quickly what is expected, but going through this is stressful to all of us. Last night I was popping Tums to keep my stomach calmed down and the acid out of my throat.

On another note I mentioned to daycare that she was likely to be tired this morning, because we were starting to have her sleep in her own bed. They said, “That’s great! Emelia is becoming a big girl. She’s sleeping in her own bed.”

When I picked her up from daycare I got a chance to chat with the same person and the woman that runs the place. She too agreed that it is a great move. She went on to tell me about all the sleep problems that many of the older kids (the 3 year olds specifically) have and what kind of strange things that their parents do to get them to sleep. She said, “It’s better for Emelia this way. By not doing the same thing other parents are doing more damage than good.”

We went on to talk about the method we are using and the bedtime routine we follow and she was very supportive. She said that she believed the routine we are trying to establish is a good one. Her last comment was to stay strong and follow through. It is worth it in the end for Emelia. She’ll sleep better on her own.

To make sure she stays warm at night we bundle her up on sleeping clothes with footsies and she wears a onsie underneath. This ensures that she doesn’t cold if/when she kicks off her blanket. We also keep the heat on at night. Instead of having it drop to 64 (which means a good 62 upstairs) we keep it at 67 (which is the norm around out house).