Bedtime Routine

At bedtime we pick up toys, take a bath, read (i.e. quickly turn pages or run around the room while mama reads), cuddle with a bottle and fall asleep. Now between cuddle and dreamtime, Turo has inserted do-everything-not-to-go-to-sleep-time. Just when it looks like the milk is doing the trick, his little eyes pop open and he is ready to play. I started putting him in his crib because he started getting too squirmy in the rocking chair. First, he walks around the crib, peeks at me from the bars, makes funny faces and tries out new noises. (It’s hard not to crack up.) When this doesn’t work, he moves into fake crying. Then he gets distracted by the sounds he is creating and moves back into noise making. Next, he tries the caca-fake-out. (Caca is Amharic for poop). He points at his diaper and tells me “caca.” After closer inspection, there is no caca – he just knows this will get him out of the crib. When none of these tactics work, he starts saying “mama” over and over in a wide range of voices ranging from pitiful to slightly-possessed. Eventually he lays down while continuing the mamas and extending various appendages between the crib slats. Once and awhile his little hand even beckons for me. Then, finally, after a couple of eye rubs, he dozes off.

This performance has turned bedtime into a lengthy, but comical, affair. My toddler book says I should just leave the room and come back every five minutes if he cries to reassure him I’m there. But I feel like this is opposite of what the attachment stuff says. I thought a good balance was staying in the room but not engaging with the behavior. I tried doing bedtime a bit later in hopes that he’d be more tired out, but that hasn’t worked. Then I read in my Parent’s magazine that when toddlers are too tired they can actually act wound up. Maybe I need to try putting him to bed earlier. Who knew bedtime could be so complicated? (probably anyone who has parented a toddler.)