Game Changer

For a year now, Harper has been going to sleep like an angel. She'd be so sleepy she'd almost collapse in her high chair at 5:30. We'd keep her awake for a bath when we could, I'd read a few books to her, plop her in her crib and she was usually out by 6 PM, not to wake up until 6 AM. And then last week happened.

Suddenly Harper has decided she is not tired at 6. She's also not tired at 6:30. By 7 she might be tired for a few seconds at a time--long enough to need to rest her head on the chair or the floor--but she is certainly not tired enough for bed. If you try to put her in a horizontal position she will let you know just how much she does not want to go to bed by squirming and screaming. I swear she grows three extra limbs at this stage because her squirming is so effective it's impossible to keep all her limbs contained, avoid a kick in the face and not drop her all at the same time.

She also has realized that the books we always read to put her to sleep, well, they put her sleep. Now when I pull out Ten, Nine, Eight she pushes it away, grunting and using all the communication methods in her power to tell me very firmly that she DOES NOT want to read that book. If I insist and open it up, she'll turn her head and look the other way. "You can't make me!" she's saying. Same goes for the other three old standbys for bedtime books. So now I have to try to read Hop on Pop or some other boisterous Dr. Seuss rhyme in a soothing bedtime tone.

And finally, after making "Mr. Brown is a wonder. Dibble dibble dop dibble dibble dop dop dop" as boring as I can, I attempt to hold my flailing octopus and hum a lullaby over her screaming. Sometimes it works, sometimes I just put her in her crib anyway because I'm ready to scream myself, and sometimes she's quiet for about 15 minutes--just long enough for you to relax and think, "Thank God!"--and then she'll start crying again. We still haven't figured out the rules to this new game. For awhile I didn't want to acknowledge the game had changed because it seemed so unfair after a year of easy bedtimes, but apparently no one told Harper she had to play by the same rules year after year. Let's hope that once I figure out this new game, it lasts for at least a couple of months before changing again.