Well kittens….I’ve reached a conclusion. After three weeks without the passie and consistent 5am wake-ups, its time for a new approach chez moi.
I kept holding out hope that DD would inch her way back to waking somewhere after 6am, as she’d been doing for some time, but now that so much time has passed, it’s clear to me that I need a new plan of attack.
Some of you might be wondering what’s taken me so long to reach this moment of clarity….but if you combine the sleeplessness that comes with your third trimester in combo with a toddler waking you up every day at 5am, it makes moments of clarity few and far between. But the time has come.
So what am I going to do, you wonder?
Get out my whistle and police siren….because the KT sheriff has pulled into town and she’s as bad as she wants to be, that’s what I’m going to do!
In other words, the old “OK, now you need to be a big girl and if you wake up and it’s still dark outside, that means you need to go back to sleep and wait until the sun comes up” – logic is clearly not working. I know she understands. But here’s the difference – she doesn’t care.
And we’ve already established this is a child who will NOT let you climb into bed with her and cuddle her back to sleep, nor will she come into our bed to cuddle up and go back to sleep, or really even watch cartoons. So, I’m going to quit rewarding her.
Starting tomorrow morning, I’ll put her on the potty, put her in some underpants, then put her back in her room and tell her she doesn’t come downstairs until the sun is up. No more playing, no cartoons, not when it’s the middle of the night.
This will go over about as successfully as McCain’s pathetic ploy to delay the debates and demonstrate leadership.
But I will stand firm. I’m prepared for her to scream and shout and carry on and for there to be much drama for many days until she finally realizes that my will outlast hers.
What time will I pull her out? Who knows. The ideal would be to leave her up until 6:30 – being realistic. Of course anytime after 7am is really ideal, but I’m living in reality. I’m thinking to even get to 6am will be enough because it’s not like she’ll just quietly acquiesce and play for 45 minutes. But mark my words, victory will be mine and we will eventually get to 6:30am.
We’re going head-to-head.
So if you find yourself up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow morning, know that I’m right there with you, playing bad ass with a determined 3-year old who clearly thinks she doesn’t need her beauty sleep.
I will report back in next week with how this approach is going.
I think being woken up at 5am would really put me over the edge. Have you tried putting a baby gate on her door, putting a potty in her room, leaving a sippy cup of water bedside, and just telling her to stay in there playing until you get up? Both of my girls are late-sleepers (thank god), but a couple times my oldest would just flip on her light and be in there having a good old time at 4am. It wasn’t a routine thing, but I was soooooooo grateful she’d thought to do that instead of coming in with us. And-whoa-good afternoon nap pay-off those days, too!
KT- May the gods of the 7am wake up call be with you as you go head-to-head with DD. I’m seriously on the edge of my seat waiting to hear how the showdown goes.
As a wise mommy once told me: “never let your kids forget that you’re more of a bad ass than they are.” (oh wait – maybe it was KT herself you gave me that advice!)
I have an early bird myself …we have tried everything. Putting him to bed late – only to be woken up even earlier! Trying to cuddle him back to sleep in our bed – only to be patted, kicked and climbed over. So please report back on how your new tactics are working.