Getting a good night's sleep

On a typical weeknight in our home, you might witness a scene like this one:

I am doing last minute cleaning before bed and filling my glass of water at 10:30. My 17-month-old little girl is running up and down the hallway dragging her doll by the hair chanting “Sasha Sasha Sasha” (her doll’s name). I am trying to coax her down the hallway into the bedroom. Finally she spots the hairbrush in my hand and chases me so she can brush Sasha’s hair.

My husband is already asleep in the bed…until we open the bedroom door…

“Dada!” She pitter patters over to his side of the bed and pats him on the back, “Hi Dada! Hi!” He’s awake and grumbling.

I do my teethbrusing and hairbrushing and bathroom nonsense and when I come back into the bedroom she and Sasha are sitting on her toddler bed in the corner. She is ‘brushing’ Sasha’s hair (with the wrong side of the brush).

“Hi Mama!” She points at her sleeping daddy “Dada?” I try to shush her and tell her Dada is sleeping.

I put our dolphin song cd into the cd player and adjust the volume so it is softly playing.

“Night Night,” I say to her.

“Ni-Ni” she says. “Sasha, Sasha” she starts chanting again. She pads over to my side of the bed, “Ah, Mama. Sasha Ni-Ni.” She hands Sasha to me and I hug her.

I ask her if she will come to bed now, “No!” and she runs over to the door to pick up the dog’s glow-in-the dark ball, “BALL!” she shouts.

“Shhhh, Dada is asleep, honey,” I whisper.

“Dada?” She points at my husband, now snoring.

Finally she comes to me and grunts at me to lift her into the bed. She snuggles bewteen us and pats her daddy on his chest, “Dada, Dada.”

I tell her, “Shhhhhh.” I put Sasha on the floor and roll towards her.

“Sasha?” I pick Sasha up from the floor. She latches on and begins to nurse while twirling Sasha’s blond locks between her little fingers. I close my eyes.

“Sasha. Oh seeeeeeeee. Zeeeeee.” She talks to Sasha, “Oh zeeee. Sasha, ohhhhh,” she hugs Sasha fiercely. She latches on again and then quickly lets go and pushes my breast away, “Gone!” We switch sides. She grunts and whines because she prefers the other breast. We switch back. She grunts again and tells me it is all gone by raising her hands in the air and giving a little shrug.

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