Sleep? What's sleep?

So we have reached that inevitable stage where getting Miss Molly to bed has become a ridiculously awful affair. Some nights things work perfectly well, like tonight, she went to bed like a sweet little angel. She actually fell asleep on the lounge room floor and I transferred her into her cot without any waking. Other nights it's like someone has come into our home and swapped my little angel for a revolting, beastly demon child. She screams and cries and then she grunts. She becomes a horrid little monster, but alas she is my little monster.

There have been nights where Molly has ended up in our bed, for no other reasons other than she was hysterical and I couldn't soothe her and it was some ungodly hour of the morning and I was running on tiny amounts of sleep. So she comes into our bed so we can get some quiet, but I only half sleep because I'm so conscious of her being there that I don't want to roll over on to her, so the only winner is Mo.

I have literally tried everything. The only routine she has is her bedtime routine. I will admit that some days she has had a sleep later in the afternoon and I was too soft to wake her. After speaking to my sister, she told me that on occasion she will give the girls a pinch if they fall asleep in the afternoon hahaha! Speaking of my nieces, there is something so wonderfully sweet about hearing my 5 year old nieces sing "TNT, Oi Oi Oi" hahaha They crack me.

Back on track, Molly is still asleep as I write this (I'm praying she stays asleep until at least 6am). My sister once gave me some very sound advice, "Do what you feel is right, and do what you need to do to get through the days". So whilst battling Molly at bedtime this advice echoes through my head, and I know that I am doing the best that I can, and I walk away leaving Molly screaming. I come into the lounge room feeling awful but knowing that I am ultimately doing the right thing, when my hubby pipes up "Awww, I'm going to get her" he's an even bigger softy than me! Neither of us can bear to hear her cry. It's just one big vicious circle ha ha!

Last night I put on one of my Shakespeare for Children CDs for Molly. I had totally forgotten about those little gems my mum had gotten Molly. So she listened to Othello and A Midsummer Nights Dream, and I think they honestly helped her get to sleep, well at least I like to think they did. I love to think that she loves Shakespeare too.

So far so good tonight, so I will leave you with this thought. I now understand why sleep deprivation is used as torture.