Bedtime has become the worst part of my day. Our intentions are always good: have dinner and bath early, read a few stories then finish off with milk and a cuddle. Yet an hour after finishing her milk Eloise is still farting around.
"Mama ticky? Ticky back. No, ticky tummy. Ticky armpit? Ha ha that tickles." Not funny.
"Mama, sing? Sing Franklin." I sing the Franklin theme song. "Sing Franklin and tree fort." I make up something about Franklin's tree fort to the same tune. "Oh no, tree fort is broken. Sing that Mama." This is ridiculous.
I should mention that by this point we are in my bed since Eloise rejects hers before this debacle even gets started. The idea is that we will just transfer her later. The idea. What typically happens is that Eloise will stay right where she is and all 22 pounds of her spend the night pushing up against me and scissor kicking Chris. "No Dad, just Mama," is a favourite nighttime saying.
I know this is just another sleep pattern, another stage, but this is getting really stupid. And I'm pretty sure it's my fault. So, new mommies and mommies to be let me caution you this: when the urge to go to your newborn with every sleep-snarffle and peep occurs, don't do it. Wait. Wait two minutes or five minutes and let them learn to soothe themselves right from the get go. Avoid having to decide if you cry it out or not and hopefully, avoid the bedtime mess we've gotten ourselves into.
At least there's hope for baby #2.
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