Ever since Lya and I spent two weeks in Pennsylvania last month, sleep has been a struggle again. Over the last month we’ve been on a roller coaster. She has slept through the night maybe 1/5 of the nights. She has gone to sleep easily maybe 1/3 of the nights. But the big problem seems to be that she has gotten used to needing us to be in the room for her to fall asleep.
Last night she was up from 10pm-2am. I tried everything. I layed on her floor for an hour. We tried working it out in fifteen minute chucks. I got out the humidifier in case the air was too dry. I gave her ibuprofin because maybe her teeth were hurting. Finally, at 2am she came to our room and slept with us. Again. Argh.
When we were at my parents’ house, she was sick the first week and so everything was off. She was exhausted and that first week would go to sleep easily only to wake nearly every hour or two. The second week she had a hard (and long) time falling to sleep but then would sleep through the night. But, I was sleeping in the same room the entire time we were gone.
Once we returned home we had two weeks of really really rough bedtimes. I completely dreaded it each and every day. But, usually, once she was sleeping, she’d sleep all night. Naps were finally kind of long again and she was sleeping 2-2.5 hours each afternoon, but only after about an hour of trying to get her to sleep. Then after two weeks of that, she flipped it. Now she has been going to bed easily both for naps and at night. But she’s waking most nights and of those she wakes up, about 2/3 of them she ends up in our bed. I love her to death, but I sleep like crap when she’s in my bed. As for naps, they’re now about 45-60 minutes long and she makes it very clear that it wasn’t enough.
Over the last year I have noticed a trend with Lya. Whenever she has a week or more with someone she loves, sleep is really hard when that changes. So, for example, after she’s been around my mom for a week or so, she usually shows the grief of separating in her sleep patterns. The same goes for Nick. We are typically wherever Nick is, but his schedule varies every week and there is at least one, sometimes 2-3, days a week that she will not see him before going to bed. Those nights seem to be rough. He has a class on Monday nights and for the last month that has been a really hard night. But, it follows a weekend of having him around for two days. All this to say, it really seems like separation anxiety. For the most part, I am the constant. In the last year, there have only been a few naps or nights that she has either gone to sleep without me being around or woken up when I wasn’t there. I can’t think of any where I was not there when she went to sleep or when she woke up.
What should I do? I’m exhausted and would appreciate any advice. Although, I know that this is just a stage and we’ll work through it just like any other stage. Eventually I’ll find us in an easy sleep pattern again. I just needed to vent.
I’m determined to just move past it each morning though. It may take an hour and a cup or coffee or two, but so far that is working this week.
Now, for something unrelated. I got glasses.
And since I opened PhotoBooth to prove it, we had to play a little bit, too.
Have a great day!
