The Nighttime Stall

When Aaron turned 2 years old, he decided he didn't want to go to sleep anymore. For about a week, we had to let him cry it out at night until he finally fell alseep. As he cried in his crib the first night, I cried with him on my kitchen floor. It was heartbreaking and torturous but every night, eventually he stopped. And every night the crying time got shorter until, after about a week, he would just go to sleep without crying. We thought we were the masters and this crying it out thing ruled. Until the next year when he started doing the same thing at 3 years old. But we did the same thing, stuck to our guns and eventually the crying stopped again.

Because of Aaron's ridiculously long bedtime routine, since birth, we have always put Camryn in her crib, awake, and she would fall asleep. She has been an amazing sleeper with random nighttime waking up, but nothing too bad and nothing on a regular basis.

Until now. The kids does not want to go to sleep. Ever. When she goes in her crib, we tell her a story and turn off the light, say good night, and as soon as we're one step out the door, we get "but mommy?" or "but daddy?" which are followed by "can I have a drink of water/a book/different music/elmo socks/my pillow/my other baby?" You get the idea. It's the nighttime stall.

Tonight the nighttime stall was followed by a nighttime cry followed by a nighttime puke. Yes, my daugher cried so hard and worked herself up so much that she threw up. And then she was petrified to go back into her crib and crying because she thought she was sick and couldn't go to school tomorrow. After about another half hour, she went to sleep, I think more though that she was so tired from not napping.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow....