There's always an ebb and flow, times when our toddlers are growing and changing. When routine becomes out of sorts. This is what my family is experiencing right now and we're trying hard to keep it together.
With a lack of sleep and some grumpiness we're all making our way through the day.
So what's the issue...
Still trying to figure it out really.
Our Hannah loves to have things to take with her to bed. For the longest time it was various babies and stuff animals from her bed. Lovies she has grown to love and rely on for comfort. To help her self sooth and feel secure.
Always being a fan of little things she started to find things that she could completely encase in her tiny palm. Not having any issues with this at first we let her have them.
She'd carry them during the day and then at night take them to bed with her too.
Soon though those tiny treasures were getting lost through the night and this was becoming great anxiety for Hannah as she couldn't find them. She started to wake up calling for either "mommy or daddy" to help her find them. This quickly turned into night time cries of can't finding them.
We knew we needed to do something to change this new routine .
So everyone could return to getting uninterrupted sleep again.
A way to help lessen Hannah's anxiety with losing these toys in her sleep, because once she's in the moment it takes a long time to get the cries and frustration to calm down.
And quite frankly John and I don't know what to do.
Especially in the middle of the night when you've been woken up by the screams of "where is it, I can't find it" over the baby monitor.
So far our solution has been to hide all the tiny things she was carrying around. To re-direct her through out the day to some other object(s). There's been some success each day.
As she has therapy every day and many activities for her to do , her hands are otherwise pre-occupied.
Bedtime..... well that's still a work in progress. John and I are slowly working on our united plan. It hard coming from two different points of view but we realize that the best thing for Hannah is for us to be on the same page so we're working that out.
Our plan thus far is to not get involved with the "where is it " routine. To be very matter of fact in our answers to her questions and just not give in.
And when the cries were (are) out of control at bedtime to give a timed amount of time before going into her bedroom again and helping the situation if we can or could.
Tears are still part of the new bedtime routine but they seem to be easier for her to handle.
Of course I want this over and done with
but I realize that things take time to learn
and so the same is for unlearning.
Patience is a virtue I'm re-learning.
Last night she didn't cry after being put to bed, just talked to herself as usual. She did wake up in the middle of the night crying but calmed herself down soon afterwards.
There may be some more roughs nights ahead but I'm being optimistic that the worst is over and that we will all find the strength we need to keep it together and move onward to those peaceful bedtimes again.
Sweet dreams.....