To All the Mantra Writers Out There
If you know us, you probably know that we haven’t quite figured out the best way to get River to sleep at night. (And if this is news to you, then I’ll spare you the details. Just take my word for it.)
But now we have a plan and sometime next week we will put it to action. But we need your help.
Among the recommendations we’ve heard is that we should have a single soothing phrase to use when R4 wakes up prematurely. The phrase can be anything we want, but we have to stick with it.
Sarah likes “ShShShShSh River” or something like that. I’m partial to a secret code phrase like “Albondigas” [I’m told that’s ‘meatball’ in Spanish] or some silly phrase from the Muppets (MahNahMaNa, anyone?)
What phrase should we use? Remember, we are going to use it repeatedly and continually for many months (years?), in the middle of the night when we’d prefer to be sleeping, so choose wisely. (Hoss, Brian and Lenny, I’m talking to you.)
Hit up the comments area, please everyone?
November 6th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
I like shshshshsh if you think you’ll be using it for a while–because when he is three he’ll say, “Dad? What is abonondaga? And I need a bandaid, for the bloods. In my knee.”
But good luck, guys, you’ll be great. Cracking the sleep thing really doesn’t take that long when you decide you are ready, and it is harder on us parents than them. REALLY. Just be consistent, which is probably more important than any mantra.
However, what do I know! Maybe I should try a mantra on Henry, who, I think, is now in the kitchen fetching an apple. (2hr nap=wideawake Henry!)
November 6th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Keep in mind it should be something you can yell. My husband yells from bed every morning “go back to sleep, Cal, it’s too early.” amazingly this works sometimes. It is very hard to yell a shhhh. I would also suggest “guard the house, Sadie, we’ll be right back.” yes Sadie is a dog but we were given the same mantra advice when we realized we adopted a dog with horrible seperation anxiety.
I’ve also found that I say, “time to go to sleep, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.” logic may not work now but it will one day. Good luck.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:04 am
…there’s a lot of options here, hoss…
I agree with the ‘yelling down the hall’ sentiment. When i would wake my parents up in the middle of the night they would often try to soothe me back to sleep by saying, “Where the hell were you? It’s almost midnight and you were supposed to be back from the ‘movie’ an hour ago! Come over here and let me smell your breath! And don’t think you’re going over to Hoss’s house tomorrow night for another game of ‘Trivial Pursuit’!!” Surprisingly, this really quieted me down, and I went right to sleep.
Hossa, on the other hand, if I wake her in the middle of the night…