Remember back when I kept complaining that I was getting no sleep? That Poppet was keeping my up most of the night? That she’d wake up, and even after bringing her into our room, would just nurse and nurse, and toss and turn, and be generally restless? I felt at times I just couldn’t take it anymore. It got as bad as having to sit outside her room in the hall where she could see us (or even in her room) just to get her to settle and drift off. (Needless to say, I got a lot of blogging done!) If we should mis-judge and turn off the hall light too soon she would be beside herself.
We were finally able to get her to the point that as long as she could hear us on the same floor as her, she was okay. But even this did not help the middle of the night feeding marathons. We thought it might be her molars coming in, but everything we tried had no effect.
In hind sight, there were many signs we should have seen. I had no problems getting her down for a nap in the afternoon, and chalked up her evening bouts to not wanting to go to sleep after having fun playing with Papa. It occurred to me that she might be afraid of the dark, and need a small source of light, so I got a small lantern with an electronic candle placed in it. When that didn’t work I gave up that idea. But the moment I snatched the night-light out of the bathroom and plugged it in her bedroom, everything changed. EVERYTHING! Not only did she settle right down, but we didn’t hear a peep from her from 8PM until we had to wake her up for a run to the airport at 8:30AM! Could it be just a fluke?
Nope! After 4 nights of uninterrupted sleep, we will hear her occasionally wake up, stir, let out a short little cry, and then…..nothing. Complete silence once again. Perhaps if your own Poppet is restless and doesn’t seem to co-operate at bed-time, they may just be trying to tell you that they too are afraid of the dark!
Warmest regards,
{jp}
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How nice that the night light worked. It never crossed my kids’ minds to be scared of the dark until my son started day care. Then the other kids must have told him about monsters under the bed and bats coming in at night… He’s well and truly over it by now.
Tat recently posted..Guest post: Parenting mindfully
Thankfully I’m sure! Poppet was never afraid either, sorta came out of nowhere, and took a while for us to figure it out! ;-)