Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Bedtime Blues...

Bedtime has been one area that my husband Justin and I have been extremely fortunate not to have had many issues with, with all three kids!  They came home from the NICU on the same four hour schedule, started sleeping through the night very early and (when I finally got up the guts to attempt it) mastered the "cry it out" thing in less than three nights!  They have always even seemingly enjoyed marching up the stairs each night when I say "ok, kids...grab your blankies, it's bedtime!" .


Until now....

These past few weeks our house has been invaded by sickness.  Justin and Ava both had pneumonia, and Emma had some kind of bronchial yuckiness. (somehow Ethan and I stayed sickness free!)  Needless to say, our routines were a little thrown off.  Bedtime was still pretty consistent, with the exception of the interruptions in the night due to coughing and nebulizer treatments. 

About three nights ago, Emma woke up with what must have been a terrifying nightmare.  When I went in to check on her, she was shaking and crying and would not let me go.  She was screaming that Izzy (our dog, a small Boston Terrier) was in her bed and was going to eat her.  Poor thing! :(  We showed her that Izzy was not in there and that she was safe, and that Izzy would never eat her!  She fell back to sleep clinging to my husband for dear life.


Fast forward to the next day....Emma was fine, playing with Izzy..even saying "I love you" to Izzy.  Bedtime comes around again and she has a complete melt down.  "Izzy's going to eat me!!"  Now typically Izzy comes upstairs with the kids at bedtime and "says goodnight" to them....it's super cute (or so I thought!) We decided to make Izzy stay downstairs this time while they went up to bed. That didn't help.  Here we are today....again, another day of playing with Izzy with no problem.  At bedtime....hysterical again.  :(  Now it is the "dark" that is the problem.  She says "I can't see my eyes!"  (so cute, yet so sad coming from her pathetic little voice)   Ok, so we put the light bulb back in the overhead fixture. (another post for another day! LOL)   This did seem to help a little......We certainly have been spoiled with such a wonderful bedtime routine!!!!


Oh, how I do hope our bedtime blues go away soon!!!! 

Life is always three times the fun at our house!!!

~Shannon :)

Shannon Smitherman: Former Kindergarten teacher, now stay at home mom of triplets Emma, Ava and Ethan who were born in the summer of 2008. 

1 comment:

  1. Aww, I hope Emma starts to feel better about going to bed soon! Thanks for sharing Shannon!

    ReplyDelete