The last week has seen Ava entering a new stage (phase, whatever) of development characterized by an unwillingness to go to sleep at night.
Over the past couple months, she’s been really good about going to bed in her big girl bed, reading a couple books, and then drifting off to sleep while we (mostly Leah) lie with her. Takes some time, sure, but it’s great to be with her as much as possible in the evening after not seeing her all day.
Well, those days of relative ease are gone. Now, Ava wakes at the slightest creak of a spring when Leah tries to sneak out of her room in the evening. And then she’s up. She’s big enough to get out of her bed, of course, so she walks to her door and pounds on it, begging to be let out, until we go in and lift her back into bed (it’s not like the door is locked, she just can’t open it).
Last night was a real doozy. After lying next to Ava down for an hour, Leah gave up. We listened to her cry for a while, then I went into Supernanny mode. I went into Ava’s room, picked her up and gave her a hug, then set her back in her bed and told her it was time to go to sleep. She was howling. When she came to the door again and demanded to be let out, I repeated the same process. She got up again. She begged me to lie with her and tell her a story. Then she begged me to rock her in the rocking chair. Then she wanted a drink (I did give her that). We went through this about four times, I guess, before she fell asleep. But she did fall asleep.
At least for a little bit. She woke up after an hour as soon as we started getting ready for bed in the bathroom next to her room. She ended up sleeping in our bed the rest of the night. It’ll be nice to have a house with a little more room in it, or at least one that doesn’t have the bathroom so close to Ava’s room.