Operation: Take Back the Night

Madison has had a little trouble sleeping at night. Okay, not a little...alot. Let's start at the beginning...

• Tuesday night: Madison goes to bed at 8:30pm. All is normal for a few minutes, then crying begins. This is very unusual...Madison is a good sleeper at night. We try nice guy, we try mean guy...nothing is working. We decide to ignore her...still crying after 1 hour. Scott goes in again to find that she has barfed all over her room. I clean kid. Scott cleans bed, floor, glider, starts laundry. We feel like a couple of boobs. Madison proceeds to yak about 4 more times before she crashes in the recliner at midnight. Wakes up several more times in the night due to illness...we rock her and comfort her as we feel like idiots for ignoring her at the beginning of the night.
• Wednesday night: Madison crashes with only a couple crying spells at 8:30pm. Doped up on Motrin. Crys a few times in the night. I try to get her back to sleep. Nothing works. I rock her again.
• Thursday night: All is well with Madison...no more flu. Back to normal except for sleep deprived (that goes for all of us). Tensions are high as we put Madison to bed at 8:30pm. She cries and cries...comes out of her room a million times...sits in the glider in her room. Naughty. Scott and I are tired. Madison finally falls asleep at 10:30pm in the glider in her room. Wakes up at 1:30am. I sit in her room and wait for her to fall asleep...go back to bed at 2:30am. Wakes at 3:30am and is standing in our room. Scott puts her in bed with us (the thing we said we'd never do).
• Friday: Day from Hell. Madison and I are at each other's throats. She refuses to potty. She refuses to get dressed. We leave the house and go shopping with a friend (in hopes that an outing might make the day a little easier) and Madison has several melt downs. I even cried once. Plan for the night: Lock Madison in her room (glider removed) and never look back. 8:30pm rolls around...she goes in and cries for about 30 minutes...then silence. We check her at 10pm...asleep in bed. High-fives exchanged between Scott and I. 4:00am...the monster awakes. She cries and cries and tries everything she can to get us in there. "I haf ta go potty." "I haf ta go poo-y." "I need to rock." "I need Joe and blankie." "I need to rock in the living room." "I need to cover up." Then, as if she has a lightbulb moment, she remembers her manners at about 5am. "I need to rock in the living room PLEASE." It is funny now, but I was almost in tears last night. So finally, at 5:30am, she is quiet again. I go to bed. She sleeps till 8:10am.
• Saturday night: We have a babysitter! YAY! Good luck Kelsie! :-)