So, where have I been I hear you ask? (or maybe not, curse my over-inflated sense of self-importance). Well, for the last couple of weeks I have mostly been running up and down the stairs, tucking Baby D back into her new grown-up bed.
Although I might be being a little harsh here. In fairness to Baby D, evening bed time has been going pretty well, she isn't making a habit of getting back out of bed and has only fallen out once:
03:00am one morning, all is quiet, all of a sudden from the room nextdoor comes "Thud... Waaaaaaahh!!!". She was fine though, I think it was just the shock of falling out of bed that got her. I can identify with that as the same thing happened to me once, although I can probably blame it on Guinness rather than being in a strange new unfamiliar bed...
Afternoon naps are another story. As I've mentioned previously, Baby D does not cope well without an afternoon nap, it'll get to around 5:00pm and she'll magically turn into a hyper little ball of non-cooperative moodiness. So, with that in mind, getting rid of the afternoon nap was not going to be an option.
The normal routine is: Lunch, milk, quiet sit down with daddy (usually including an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), nappy change, story, then nap time...
The obvious problem we've had is that because Baby D is in a big bed rather than a cot, she's now free to get out of bed and play in her room. The other problem we've found is that she isn't quite tall enough yet to climb back into bed when she eventually decides she does want to sleep. There's been a couple of times when I've gone up to check on her and found her asleep on the floor!
So yes, there has been a lot of running up and down the stairs and tucking in. I think my worst day was something like 10 times. I refuse to give up though, and in any case, there hasn't been a day where she hasn't ended up falling asleep so that reassures me she needs the nap.
It's been an interesting battle though, I'm sure she's arrived at the point where she's thought "If I get out of bed again, daddy will come in to see me" so if I'm having a bad day I'll go with the "Supernanny" approach i.e. going into the room, not making a fuss, not talking, putting her back into bed and walking straight out again.
This might seem a little harsh but it appears to have got the message across, today being a great example, she didn't get back out of bed once and slept for nearly 2 hours, hence I've finally got a little free time to update my blog :)
Long may the afternoon naps continue - please!!!
