Revolving Door

I took some pictures of Kirstin when I went in to wake her up yesterday morning.  I found it a pleasure to do so, because she had me up quite a bit the night before.  Here she is, sleeping peacefully.  She looks like a little angel when she's asleep, doesn't she?

Aah. Now we have eyes.  We're starting to wake up.  By the way, these shots were punctuated with many grunts and squeals.  She does not wake up gracefully all the time.  Pretty soon she'll be out of bed.

We've made it out of bed, but not very far.  Still tired, and the rocking chair looked like a comfy pit stop on the way out of the room.

Now we're awake, though not happy about it.  In fact, she wouldn't walk down the stairs by herself, so I carried her like a sack of potatoes.  Then I deposited her on the couch and let her wake up fully. 

So why is she so tired?  She didn't go to bed till late, and was throwing a tantrum before that.  In fact, because she wouldn't go to bed and was screaming and thrashing so much, I took Emily out of her crib and brought her into our room for a little bit to make sure at least one child would stay asleep.  Then Kirstin and I played "revolving door."  She would get out of bed, run and open the door, and come out into the hallway and yell at us some more.  I would pick her up and carry her like I would a laundry basket-on my hip-with her head and chest parallel to the floor.  I put her back into her bed and she would repeat the process. 

I tired of the game much sooner than she did, so I stopped it at the door opening.  I held the door shut when she tried to open it.  Somehow her volume switch must have gotten stuck, because she got much louder.  After about a minute of trying to get out of her room with me holding the door and laughing at her, she started getting hoarse.  A minute later, she quieted down to whimpers with a few "Mom!" yells thrown in.  I let her open the door again.  She said, "I want to say I'm sorry, mom!" 

Battle won.  And no, Emily never did wake up through all of that.  And yes, I was laughing. Matt was laughing as well, as he was laying in bed watching Emily to make sure she didn't wake up.  Sometimes with tantrums you have a choice of laughing or getting angry.  I've found laughing works much better for me. I've had practice with tantruming children who were much older than Kirstin, so I knew if I just let her cry herself out life would be good.  She was out of control, and I gave her the time find peace again.  Afterward I gave her a hug and all was good.  We talked about it in the morning after she was fully awake.  Unfortunately, she was out of bed three more times during the night, but we made it through. 

It would seem that our sticker program isn't working very well.  Honestly it is, though.  Aside from the revolving door night, she's been up much less.  And she's finally even gotten a couple of stickers!  I'm so proud of her!