Sleep or Not?

These pictures are of the Princess shortly after we met her in China, I was thinking of them today after the week we have had. Sleep has become more and more scarce, hard to believe it was never a problem while we were in China or even those first few months home. Then the night terrors started, and progressed into a need to feel us close to her all the time. We have been in a pattern of going to bed, then I wait, midnight rolls around and sure enough the Princess is at my door, checking to see where we are, once confirmed we go back to her bed, tuck her back in and we are usually good for a couple, maybe even 3 more hours before her next trip, this goes on until, generally, she wins and ends up in our bed either in the morning (preferably!) or at whatever point in the wee hours that either Daddy or I give in so we can all get at least a few hours of sleep. Not an ideal situation you would agree but at least if she waits til Daddy goes to work (5am) we can generally say we got a decent nights sleep.

However this week things took a different turn. When around 1:30 am I took her back to her bed, mildly protesting but not too bad, about a half hour later we heard a noise. Sounded like the Pixie's crib. Sure enough when Daddy checked, the Princess had climbed into her sister's crib and was attempting to get comfy, but she hadn't counted on the Pixie waking up and protesting. Over the next 2 hours we had to take her out of the Pixie's room no less than 5 times and that was only the times we actually caught her. Needless to say, no one slept. When asked after the 2nd time "have you lost your mind?" (yes I actually asked her that) her reply was "I don't know, but I was trying to "sneak"." HUH? She is always amazed that because she can't see us, that we still know what she is doing. She knows there the baby monitor is there but she really hasn't grasped the fact that we can always hear her.

As frustrating as all that was, I can see the humor in it, now. However it scares me for the deeper problem that is becoming more apparent with the Princess and especially her sleep. Whenever she gets overstimulated we can count on a rough night. Doing new things, meeting new people, this will do it too. She has a blast while she is up and out but it seems like processing it at night she just can't seem to do. She has her 4 year old physical in the first week of September and I am going to talk with her Dr. more about it and make them listen. I keep hoping that if we keep a good bed time routine, which we do, that somehow it will work itself out for her and us. But I feel like the problem is escalating rather than declining and now she is keeping the Pixie awake too and trust me the Pixie without a good nights sleep.....not a good thing.

What do you do with a child that just doesn't want to sleep alone?? Sleeping with the Pixie is just not an option right now, sleeping with us is really not either. I just don't know anymore. I feel for her, I can remember climbing in bed with my older brother and I remember at 5 getting my own room and missing him very much. But even with that experience I don't know how to help her on this one anymore. I am tempted while Daddy is gone to just let her sleep with me for a few nights and see if there is a difference, does she still wake up? is she still crying out? and part of me is terrified that I give an inch and let her in bed, I'll never get her back in hers at all, and sometimes that few of hours of peace between 8 and midnight is all I get. Can you tell my mind is going round and round on this one???

We just started off so well, it's nice to look back and remember that for a little while she slept through night, if we could just figure out how to get back to that point again:)