Bedtime Blues

For the past week now Arielle has had a very difficult time falling asleep at her regular bedtime. I would go upstairs and walk by her room to feed Averi between 9 and 10 pm and find that Arielle's bedroom light was on. Upon opening the door she would be sitting up in bed with a pile of books on her bed and on the floor. She would just say "I can't fall asleep." I spoke to her teachers and asked them not to help her fall asleep at nap time because my hope was that any sleep during the day would be the cause of her not being able to fall asleep at night. Turns out that she didn't nap most days this week but still couldn't fall asleep at night.


I'm actually quite amazed at how well she is handling this because I would have expected her to come downstairs throughout the course of the night and make a fuss to sit with us. However, to my delight there has been no crying, whining, fussing, yelling, screaming or any other tantrum-like episodes thus far. Of course, I'm not at all too happy about this new little routine that she has been settling into but I think we are doing a good job of handing it.


Last night I decided to take a new approach to the situation. I told her that she couldn't turn the lights on after we left her room but she could use her flashlight to read one book. After that she had to try to fall asleep but whatever she did she couldn't turn her bedroom light on. I think having the light on will make her less likely to fall asleep which is why I made this rule. I know for sure that she didn't turn her light on last night because I checked often but I never went in her room to know if she read more than one book or what time she fell asleep. I'm crossing my fingers that the "No lights on" rule will work and she'll outgrow this soon.

~Momma to Bug n' Bear ~