Remember When All They Did Was Sleep?
A story about the good old days and hope for a better day tomorrow.
You know, I was thinking about this today as it’s the 7th anniversary of driving her home from the hospital. 1
And tonight, of all nights - was the night that she decided to misbehave, and it was all due to bedtime - of course.
As you can see in the photo above, it was bedtime all the time when she first came home 2 and now tonight it was a struggle and I have to tell you I’m a little disappointed . I don’t expect the child to be a saint all the time - but tonight she misbehaved once again - It was not the worst I have seen, but still not a good way to end the day, and on our anniversary too!
It all comes down to lack of sleep. When she was a newborn, she was quite happy sleeping as there wasn’t a lot going on yet so heck, might as well sleep, right? Lots of sleep meant a happy baby for the most part. Life was easy - except for the poo - and the screaming - don’t forget the screaming.
Anyway - now her brain and body move all the time so you would think that they would want to sleep! If you move a lot and are tired you would think that the thing you would want to the most would be to sleep. Apparently it’s the opposite because now her brain and body move all the effing time and this makes bedtime hard. real hard for dear old Dad to deal with
Take tonight: Tonight was the night of “ I don’t want that”. She did not want her hair washed, she did not want to brush her hair and what really ruffled my feathers tonight- - the child would not go to bed unless it was her way.
I told her that no, you can’t make a “bed” out of squishmallows. It’s late, Dad has a million things he wants to get done that don’t involve saying “go to bed” over and over and NO you can’t make a squishmallow bed.
“Go to bed like a normal person”, I told her.
She was having none of it and got all upset about how sleeping in the bed the right way was like sleeping on a rock and it was too hard and….I didn’t hear the rest of it because I just closed the door on her. You can misbehave, but it doesn’t mean you get an audience.
I only listen to behaved little girls.
This brings me back to the photo above where bedtime wasn’t really the problem. All you had to do was feed, hold and change a diaper or two - the rest of the time she was asleep.
7 years goes by pretty fast - I started with an arm-full and ended up so far with a hand-full.
The trouble is: despite the troubles, and bedtime wars - I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Good night, Child. Here’s to many more years of bedtimes - some good, and some bad - but each with their own adventure.
Sleep tight,
TH and Co.
I have never driven so slow and carefully before - or since - that day.
except for 3am. Bu
As hard as it may be to do sometimes... treasure every moment, they grow up very quickly. My little darlings are now in their mid 30's, and have kids of their own a little older than your little angel.
Look for the silver linings.. 🙂