Crying It Out - Reprise

[velvetpage]

Okay, enough is enough.

We had people over tonight (see riddocksdawn ). Isn't it nice that now she'll go to bed while we're still playing, we said. No more lengthy breaks from gaming while trying to get Elizabeth to go to sleep, we said. She's gone down several times this week with just a few token sobs, we said. Everyone smiled, made nice noises, and said goodnight on command. Actually, most of them said bonne nuit, because we have a very multilingual group. Elizabeth and went upstairs. We brushed her teeth, and she tried to brush mine. We said our little prayer, and she actually folded her hands and closed her eyes. I put her down, with Pooh on one side and Piglet on the other, covered with a blanket.

And she screamed.

Fifteen minutes later, after we'd both sat upstairs for a while trying to settler her, we made a big mistake. We got her out of her crib and brought her back downstairs.

She was fine with this, of course. Life was peachy. She'd gotten exactly what she wanted.

The problem came about ten minutes ago, when everyone had left and we put her down again. Talk about setbacks! SHe's still wailing, and I'm quite sure that if she'd had anything to eat recently, it would by now be all over her, Piglet, Pooh, the carpet, and her bedding. Possibly one or both of us, too.

Lesson of the day: follow routines. They are there for a reason. They are comfortable. She is much happier when the standard routine is followed.

I should have gone through the teeth-brushing, praying routine again, because she's getting used to it. I don't think it would have made a difference, though. She just thought she wouldn't have to go to sleep alone anymore.

I just went in and hummed her one of our favourite lullabies. It's my favourite because it has lots of repetition and yet lots of melodic movement, lovely sweeping intervals and soothing rhythms. I believe the melody is called Suo Gan, and it's an old Welsh tune. It's on the first Charlotte Church CD, and the kid in Empire of the Sun sings it early on in the movie and again near the end. It never fails to calm her somewhat. The only question is, will it calm her enough? However, she appears to have stopped screaming now. Maybe she's asleep. Since she's now two hours past her bedtime, she ought to be really tired. Oh, there she goes again - little sobs this time. There, even those have stopped. I think she's out.

I have to be up in eight hours to get ready for my lovely day at the spa. I've chosen one or two hairstyles out of the magazine which I think would suit me, though I want shorter bangs than any of the models had. I've even got a good romance novel, one that I've read before so I won't get too caught up in it to relax, ready to go. (Someone suggested a magazine, but I don't get caught up enough in magazines. Besides, I prefer the ones that require thought and opinion about the articles, and those are not conducive to total relaxation.)

She's definitely out. Let's hope she stays that way until 7:30 tomorrow.

Comments

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Whew. I'm sorry to hear she's still having such a rough go of it. I thought for sure that once we'd all cleared out that she'd be too tired to stay awake anymore :(

I hope you're having a great time at the spa. Relax and rejuvenate!

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

More on that later. . . I just got back. Elizabeth's crying in the next room, apparently unwilling to go down for a much-needed second nap. Suffice it to say, they should rename that place - "Heaven on Earth", while sacreligious, might nevertheless come closer to the truth.

[sassy-fae.livejournal.com]

Nice! Sounds like a perfect pampered day (except for the crying, at least)

[anidada.livejournal.com]

I think there must've been something in the air last night -- maybe it was the humidity, the smog, the phase of the moon, who knows -- but the bunny was in an awful state, too. Moreso than usual. Weird. Though we just noticed she's getting three more teeth at once (and two are molars) -- is Elizabeth teething again, maybe? (I'm having a hard time accounting for last night's excessive antsyness, so I'm grasping at any explanation possible, admittedly. *sigh*)

Please post when you're home, inquiring minds want to hear what happened at the spa!!! *happy thoughts*

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

It's a definite possibility, but last night it was simply the desire to be downstairs where the action was. I think the clincher in this case was Uncle rainwolf 's cool dice and bird noises. Who would want to leave that?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

"suo gan" ... If I'm not mistaken, that just means "lullaby" (or "buzzy song", but I dunno why it got mutated. [Bard trails off into a Cymrogeek fugue for a bit]). I use a Welsh lullabyish song on Rhys now and then: Cyfri'r Geifr [counting goats], though my goats get a rather wider variety of adjectives than just colors, when I get bored with singing it for half an hour...

... Geekery aside, that sounds like an extra-stress of a night. I guess these things are about 2d6 steps forward, d12 steps back ...

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I just know this melody because it seems to be everywhere. It's on the Irish Tenors Christmas CD, too, set to Christmasy words.

I have just a tiny bit of Welsh in me, from my grandmother. Though the actual stories were lost, the theory in the family is that her father's family came to London from Wales in the 1830's or 40's. My grandmother and her sister both had the voice which seems to be the Welsh trademark, and I inherited that (though, to be fair, there are soloists on my mother's side of the family too.) The only area where I might be seriously tempted to live vicariously through my daughter is if she gets that voice. It will get trained in her generation, if that's what she wants.