I bought a book last week called no cry sleep solutions.  I read 120 pages between Friday evening and Saturday morning before nap time.  This book is riddled with common sense.  Things anybody should know...we just needed it spelled out for us.

Typical day lately for Ellen is skipping an afternoon nap completely with Grandma, crashing here around 5 and then us fighting with a crying, fussing toddler for at least an hour sometimes two before she finally goes down hard around 10:30 or later.  Mom and Dad completely spent and exhausted. 

We honestly were beginning to think wonder if she was hyperactive.  She doesn't seem it at all, but she just has so much energy.  She's not tired at 10:00 at night and she's up at 7:30!  I only require about 6 hours sleep so why should she be any different?

Well...as the nice lady explains.  Sometimes over tired children aren't all fight and misery.  Sometimes over tiredness manifests itself in other ways....like hyperactivity.  hhmm....  then there was also extreme stubbornness, melt downs at bed time...fighting through teeth brushing, begging for cartoons to watch and having fits when they were turned off....we were doing EVERYTHING wrong!! 

So Saturday, right after lunch I turned off the TV, drew the curtains to darken the room a bit and we fought for about 8 minutes before she quieted down and drifted off to sleep.  Her nap was only an hour...but a good start.  That night...right after her bath she went straight into her Jammies (as Brett is always telling me to do) and we did no rough housing.  There was no loud playing.  no running with the dogs.  I let her color with daddy for 10 minutes then we read three books...and I turned off the TV, lights every thing.  She was asleep in bed by 8:30!  Ellen Noel Batson slept 11 hours!!!!!  I could not believe it.  And we were so damned exhausted from a month of this bad cycle we were on that we were in bed by 9:30....lol.

So today I did the very same thing.  Today's nap only lasted 45 minutes, but Ellie has been in bed since 8:10 PM and I am hoping for 12 hours out of her since I am on vacation!

Next up....how do I get her to bed without rocking?  When do I get to just say "night, night," and close the door as she drifts off to sleep?  We'll see.  Worse case we keep this up...who cares.  She is in bed peacefully and I am at peace with myself.

aahhhhh....  (that was a heavy sigh of content)

Night, Night.