Nighttime Challenges

Recently, Poppy has begun to exhibit extreme resistance to her evening bedtimes. She's always been one to only sleep partially through the night in her own bed, often ending up with Victoria and me in the wee hours of the morning. Since Annie's been off to Mount Hermon this summer Poppy's been going to bed in Annie's room (as opposed to ours - we only have three bedrooms) so that we can allow Willow to fall asleep on her own and in our room without any initial disturbances from anyone else. Several months ago we noticed that Poppy didn't like anything on the floor (like my flip flops or a stuffed animal) when she went to sleep, so we had to be careful to remove these things from her sight before "hitting the hay". Of course, if there was ever a bug or a fly in the room, that would certainly set her off, not to mention the fact that our cats would every once in awhile traipse into the room and cause her to tear up. Then a few weeks ago she thought that the fan in her room was coming after her, so we had to remove that. She's currently the only one in the family that falls to sleep (if even only momentarily) without fan noise. Now after she falls asleep, literally within 15 to 30 minutes or so she's screaming for her Mama, crying and sucking two of her right hand fingers (like you see above). Since she's in such hysteria and uncontrollable crying, often the kind that causes her to lose her breath and arrhythmically gasp for air, I usually can't resist the drive to pick her up, cuddle and try to comfort her. (Victoria does the same thing; we just take turns on various evenings.) When we try to get her to explain to us what the trouble is, she cannot put into words what's going on in her heart or mind. It's then that we often vacillate with mixed emotions between, "Should we keep doing this, or just let her cry? Are we digging ourselves into a deeper trap, or is this some seasonal thing that will pass and no one will be worse for the wear?" By stark contrast, Willow almost begs to go to bed, smiles and then waves while uttering a "gwa-gwa" or something like that as we leave the room and close the door.

All in all we're pretty relaxed about the whole situation with Poppy, even though our patience is often tried to the ninth degree. Bottom Line: Yes, this too shall pass, it's a minor inconvenience to us, and she's just too dang cute, adorable, and clearly needy at that hour of the day to parent differently. On this second go around with children there are just some things we're not going to get too hung up about. While we've tightened up in some areas, we're lightening up in others. But by the grace of God go we.

Warmly in Christ,

Tom (& Victoria)