A Toddlers fight for Independence from Bedtime
Kiki crawled out of his bed and walked out of his room in a quiet dark house for the 5th time that night!
“No nini(sleep)” he said.
“I am not tired,” he repeated.
It was 10pm!
Not sure about him, I was definitely tired.
I scooped him up, one more time and put him in his bed, losing my cool by the minute.
If you know Kiki, you know he is a fighter! That tiny little body has more fight and defiance than all of us(me, Vicky and Kiara) put together.
“You will not come out of your bed” I said in a very angry voice.
And walked out and closed the door behind me.
He is crying now and I am on the verge too!
I am feeling guilty of shouting at him. But he knows how to turn my guilt into anger!
He got up, crawled out of his bed one more time and switched on the light in his room.
“No off the light” he is crying now.
I can not believe what he just did!
I wasn’t ready for a 2 year old to be a rebellious teen and do the exact opposite of what he has been just told!
At this point I hand over to my husband and walk away!
His cries have turned into howls now.
“Mumma… Mumma…”
Now Vicky scoops him up, tries to calm him down. Vicky is much calmer. I mean obviously, he did not witness the biggest act of defiance!
Kiki starts to calm down too. His howls are turning into muffled cries now, still begging for mumma.
I give up, one more time, and go to his room.
He climbs on and hugs tight.
I am now feeling guilty of letting him cry so much, anxious that it's too late for this little child to be awake, angry that he has taken all this while to sleep and so sad that my good sleeper has morphed into this angry little toddler who is just refusing to sleep at bed or nap time.
Tears trickled down my eyes as I realized the helplessness of this situation.
After all the crying, he is now tired enough and is yawning. I put him in his bed, kiss him goodnight and walk away.
We started the bedtime routine at 8 and it's 10:15 now.
I have nothing left in me!
I sit in front of the TV and browse through Taking Cara Babies blog looking for answers when I see she has a toddler sleeping class too??!!
That’s the light I needed at the end of my tunnel!
If you remember, the last time I was this desperate, he was 7 weeks old and Taking Cara Babies literally saved me and I was so ready to get on that wagon again!
Now before you ask , this is, in no way an endorsement and I am not getting paid by TCB, just something that has helped me immensely!
So anyways, I throw some money at the problem and doze off watching her very first class.
The next day though I am determined to go through the entire course and get armed with everything that I need to get him back to sleep.
And now the But!
There is no magic formula to a toddler's sleep!
She does tell a lot of useful things but also mentions it's not gonna get fixed overnight.
I am still optimistic.
My Google Doc with a list of do’s and dont’s is ready and is shared with Vicky and Kiara.
They all know what to do and how to do it.
Tonight, we will go all in, completely armed with our new found knowledge and knock the ball out of the park!
Do you know who else is armed with new knowledge, ? Kiki!
Because last night he discovered he can tippy toe and reach the light switch and turn it on!
Now what happened next deserves a place of its own.
Tune in next week to read all about it!
