I hate sleep training

I am so tired of waking up in the middle of the night.

Now Gemma is coming to our bed. Which is fine because then we actually SLEEP instead of me walking over to her room 3 or 4 times a night. But since I would like to sleep with Chris instead of Gemma (although she is cuddlier and has better breath) last night we insisted she go to her own bed. And so I was up because she woke up three times crying. And if we want to sleep train her we will have to go through this for days and days until she starts to sleep n her own in her own room. All night. And I can not cave in and fall asleep in her bed. Or let her come to my bed. Which means I will not sleep much. Not that I do already. Ugg, I am already in a bad mood thinking about it. Lack of sleep makes you crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Earlier bedtime = success

We've been doing an 8:30 bedtime for a week or so, and its worked! And in fact, on Thursday night I kept her up just because I was being selfish and I wanted to go to the rest of Chinese Corner because it was being hosted in our building so after I paid the babysitter ad made sure Guinness was asleep I just took her upstairs. This bumped bedtime to 9:45. And that night was terrible!!

A friend suggested this sleeping incentive. Every night she sleeps in her own bed, and doesn't sleep in our bed, she gets to put a sticker on a chart. The stickers say S L E E P I N G and when she gets them all she gets a prize. 2 nights of success, yay!

Did that just happen??

The things I see in this country never cease to amaze me.

Tonight I was watching one of Gemma's educational Chinese language VCDs. Its a great set starring ChaoHu, the tiger, ChiChi his rabbit friend and a host of other animals and puppets. Lots of cute songs and repetition, and we've learned a lot from it.

So tonight we're watching a new one I haven't seen yet. And they are doing a farm tour. We see the cows in the field, eating, and they're talking about how hungry they are, etc. Then they go back to the barn because they are full. Once there, they have their udders washed and we see a milk machine demonstration. Ok, thats cool. Then we see the milk go to a processing plant, etc, and put into bottles. So far so good, right? Well, this ties right into a 'where do cows come from' segment. It shows a cartoon cow with an egg. Noooo, cows don't come from eggs. A large X appears on the egg laying cow, and the next clip is a LIVE COW GIVING BIRTH. Yes, you see a real live cow giving birth on the TV. Can I just say that I would NOT expect that appear on a children's DVD at home, ever in a million years???? But like I said earlier, the things that I see in this country are just not what you'd expect sometimes.

Gemma's School

Gemma will be starting preschool after Chinese New Year break, February 14. Annabelle is leaving us; getting married to a Taiwanese American and moving to the US and we needed a new plan for the kids. We've been thinking about school for a while but they don;t do it here like they do at home; twice a week for a few hours or whatever. Here it is everyday, half days or full days. Except half days are almost as expensive as full days and because Chris does most of his meetings/work over the middle of the day so we are going for the full day program. Gulp. Is my daughter ready for full days out of the house? Drop between 8-9, pick up between 4-4:30.

Of course, it is an excellent school. It is at a nearby church, and they have a huge facility, lots of materials and things, across from a huge park. High teacher student ratio. Designed for 3-4 year olds. Very Christian in teaching; lots of prayer and worship time, music time. Nap time after lunch. PE, music, art, science, math, history, geography, Chinese and English. (Although the instruction and day to day will be in Chinese) I always get a kick out of things like geography for 3 year olds but whatever, its cute and they need to learn stuff so thats cool. There will be 4 other wei-guo-ren children there (foriegner) so she'll have some companions, at least for half day as those children have mothers who stay home.

I think she is ready for the challenge of school, and although this is a big step I think she'll do great. I can't wait to see what she'll learn.

Night Terrors/Confusional Arousals

They're back.

My girl had these confusional arousals for a long time. I could count the number of times she slept through the night on one hand until she was three years old. Then, finally, blissfully, she slept. 10-12 hours UNINTERRUPTED! You can imagine how amazing this made my world!

Until now. Recently (the last 6 weeks) she has been up 5-7 nights a week, several times a night. Calling out, crying, yelling, getting mad at people (me, Annabelle, Guinness...) thrashing, yelling louder. These sessions last for 10-30 minutes. She is not awake. She has no idea I am in the room. I can not say or do anything to calm her down. I almost never get her to wake up. (And experts say NOT to wake them up, they will pass sooner if you just leave them alone.)

I call them confusional arousals as opposed to night terrors because that's what some experts call them. Terrors are more screaming afraid type behavior, whereas confusional arousals are more agitated, anger, upset behavior. Terrors aren't generally as long as arousals. In both behaviors the kids have no recollection of what happens. And, the most maddening thing about all the reading I've done and research is THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO.

Ugg, great. So basically don't sleep through the night ever again. Ok, they are supposed to outgrow it. But when?

One thing the books do say is that being overtired can make them worse. So bedtime is officially bumped up. Guinnes: 7:45. Gemma, lights out by 8:30. She is very active in the day, not napping anymore, so that could be part of the problem. I am thinking that school will help (when she starts attending full time in February, more to follow) because she will behave naps there (and I suspect she'll sleep) and be more tired at home after a full day of activity.

Anyway, you know what my prayer request is now...SLEEP!