A Door?

The past few days (or really 10 days) have been quite trying in our household - however last night won the prize (at least for the moment).  Carly was fighting bedtime and it quickly turned into a battle over who was more strong willed, her or her daddy.  We tried good cop, bad cop approach.  We tried talking to her in hopes of finding the underlying issue.  At points we have thought she had become afraid of the dark or us abandoning her.  We also questioned if she was regressing back to being a "baby" since when David cries at night we jump to his side.  However, the only major common thread in all of her break downs has been her desire for us to not leave the room.  Sometimes asking that one of us gets in bed with her or just sits with her.  At some point after 2:00am (yes, over 6 hours after it all started) Dave and Carly had a break through.  He for some reason offered to leave her door open if she promised to stay in bed and stop crying.  Well she did.  She at some point between then and 3:30am fell asleep - which allowed me to sleep until she awoke at 7:00am bright eyed and bushy tailed.  (David on the other hand slept from 3:30am until 10:00am.)

Well at nap time I thought I would resort back to our pre-David Jr. nap time and bedtime routines.  They had been altered slightly during the four weeks Carly was either away or we had company helping us and were much shorter than this lengthy routine, but I was DESPERATE and had read a ton of articles, blogs, and random advice during our 6+ hour battle.  A common thread was that sometimes older kids needed longer to wind down for bed when a new sibling arrives, may need extra cuddle time, etc.  I was willing to try it.  However, it didn't seem to help.  We had our typical nap time battle and I was struggling on my 3 hours of sleep.  Finally she asked if the door could stay open.  Out of desperation and being tired of her coming in and out of her room I allowed it.  Well it worked again and within 10 minutes she was asleep.  She took a 90 minute nap and only woke up because I refused to let her sleep past 4:00pm.

Tonight we went straight to the door resolution (with the LONG bedtime routine) and wouldn't you know - it WORKED.  She stayed in her room and didn't cry.  She didn't fall asleep immediately, but she did fall asleep on her own before 9:00pm.  (Unfortunately, David Jr had a hard night with his reflux so didn't get into a deep sleep until around 10:30 - maybe one night they will fall asleep close to 8:00pm and I will get things done around the house in time to be in bed by 9:30...)

Note - I fully anticipate this door trick not working tomorrow and it all just being a fluke.