One More Hug: A Bedtime Tale

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Bedtime is hard. Sharing my truth today.

Like many of you, I wait all day to have a little snippet of alone time in the evening. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy all the cuddles all day, the giggles, the new experiences that we have. But whenever I’ve had one toddler (or tween) tantrum too many, I’m counting down the minutes for bedtime.

Branden is easy. He has always been. At almost 11 he does his own thing at night and is as happy as could be. When he was Blake’s age, he was totally the “one more book” kind of kid and we would read story after story and then go to sleep pretty effortlessly. And he stayed in his bed all night until morning – most day I had to wake him up because he would just sleep and sleep.

Blake on the other hand is very different. And I get that every child is different. But, let’s just take this moment to give an imaginary fist bump to all the mamas and the papas that are dealing with difficult sleepers mmmmkay?

A few weeks ago, I posted on my Instagram stories a picture of me, sitting at Blake’s door with a glass of wine in my hands because I had to put her back to bed 6 times already. Six times! Some nights she goes right to sleep, others she keeps trying to come back out of her room, which is extra challenging because she has 2 ways to escape (her bathroom door, which leads to Branden’s bedroom and her bedroom door). To say these night are exhausting is a complete understatement. And one of the many cases of the dark circles under my eyes.

On this particular night, I got fed up and had just parked myself on the steps, drank my wine, and made sure she knew I wasn’t messing around. It was way past her 7:30 pm bedtime at this point and mama needed a break.

But she needed one more hug. And minnie mouse needed one more hug. And Blake needed water and was hungry, and so on.

This went on until 9:30.

Bed time can be hard.

You might say that she just wasn’t “ready” to go to sleep that night and you would probably be right. At one point I did bring her downstairs to sit with me and then we back up and tried the whole song and dance again. The fact that she woke up still tired the next day though, was a sign that she was just fighting it the night before.

So, this post is for all you mamas out there doing the same song and dance in your homes, too. I know that you all have routines and are doing the best you can to stick with them. Some nights are just “off.” Some nights you need a glass of wine. Some nights you fall asleep with them when they finally do. Some nights you just say “eff it” and bring them into bed with you. I feel you.

We have the best intentions whenever it comes to putting our kids to bed and some nights are just harder than others and it sucks when those nights roll around.

As I sat there on the steps last week, slowly savoring each sip of wine, I knew I probably wasn’t the only one doing that same exact things at that same exact moment. That’s my mom truth this week: sometimes bed time involves wine. Sometimes bedtime stresses me out. Sometimes bedtime is a beautiful moment. You just never know which one you’re going to get until bedtime rolls around.