Thursday, July 22, 2010

Mom vs. The Anti-sleeper


This would be my precocious, almost 10-year-old daughter. This would also be the anti-sleeper in my house. Now I can understand if she were a little younger, the refusal to stay put in bed, but she really is almost 10 and fairly mature for her age. I'm writing this blog in the hopes that I can gain a little insight on the "why" I keep getting woken up in the night to her aimless wanderings.
I sleep like the dead. My boys are good sleepers too. I'll first have to place the blame on her Dad, who is an extremely light sleeper. I awoke to babies in the bed countless times when they were teeny because he heard them whimpering in their sleep, clear on the other side of the house. So, I know she comes by the light sleeping honestly! I have tried countless things to keep her down and I'm running out of options. I am sitting here with a lack of sleep headache because she got up twice in the night last night. The first time it was because the dishwasher turned on (it's on a delay timer because it's noisy during prime-time) and I could hear her coming toward our room. Our flooring is a bit noisy, BTW... (I can hear the kids coming from all the way down the hall) She came to my man's side of the bed and he woke up a little and it jolted me out of a dead sleep. I followed her back to bed and asked what had woken her up. She told me and I kissed her forehead and I told her to go back to sleep. The second time she didn't wake me up, but she woke my man up and he bolted out of bed, jarring me out of sleep again. He put her back to bed again. *Yawn*
This is what we've tried:
Melatonin. This works sometimes and sometimes not so much. It's the natural hormone your body makes that induces sleep. If I take it, I am dead. If she takes it, it works sometimes, sometimes not...eh, go figure.
White noise. I have a small fan by her bed that runs and helps block out any of the house creaking and outside noise from our lovely neighbors. The only problem I have is that I can't get her to let me turn it on most of the time. I will be making sure it gets turned on from now on though.
Bed schedule. Do the same thing every night, brush your teeth at the same time, put on pj's, take a bath, go to bed at 9. This will have to get strict again (we are pretty lax during summer break), it may be a big factor.
My man uses a STOP sign. He puts it on a chair in the hall and it has a large STOP on it and directs the offender back to bed. He claims great success. I pointed out that he has used it like once and I don't think she even got up that night. So, who knows on this!
Rearrange the room. I removed the bed from the outside wall, she kept claiming she could hear the neighbors outside, the wind, the branches, etc. My man even bought her a new trundle daybed as a surprise for her up coming birthday. It'll take up a whole lot less room and still serve the purpose we need and she won't outgrow it, unlike the bunk bed.

What to try now:
Wear her out. It's stinking hot in our area, the kids don't get a whole lot of outdoor playtime. I think I'll make a better effort to take a walk in the evening, or to visit the splash pad (which is close by) or to take a bike ride with her. Let's see if this is a little more helpful.
I'm going to get her to move to her bottom bunk. It'll be cooler for sure and she won't be up high enough to see out the top of her window either. The new bed will solve this issue as well.
Follow the bed time schedule. I blame my man for part of this, he gets home pretty late, so we eat kinda late, and the kids miss him and want to hang out with him all evening until bed. I'll just have to put my foot down and get him to make a better effort to get home at a decent time as well.
Alright, I think I have a plan to wrangle my anti-sleeper and I would love to hear any suggestions you have as well! I think a nap is definitely in order for today, *yawn*.

2 comments:

Cara said...

Try earplugs. You can buy a giant box of them on Amazon. I am a very light sleeper too and I have to sleep with a fan on and earplugs in too. Also maybe try rewarding her when she does stay in bed... appeal to her greed. :)

jgirl said...

I'll have to try the reward thing, she likes quarters...hmmm...=0)