Sleep Revisited

This sleep thing still fascinates me.

See, for example, how Jack's naps have changed over his little 3 1/2 year life.

Originally he had spectacular naps. Two. At the exact right times. It was glory. One big nap while Abby was in pre-school and one big nap after we had lunch. And at night he slept really well. Not great - fitfully, but he slept.

Once my pregnancy with Finn was coming to a head (no pun intended) Jack started having night terrors. I honestly can't remember how his naps were at this point. But not too long into the journey I abandoned Jack's naps because it was taking him an hour or two to fall asleep at which point I would be at my wit's end frustrated and very very cranky. Especially since he wasn't letting anyone sleep at night anymore.

So after much suffering we finally re-instituted nap and did all those other things to change Jack's sleep patterns and sure enough it worked gloriously. Oddly enough though, Jack's renewed nap was THREE HOURS LONG. Which is great for a break, especially after so much difficulty, but it meant a planning nightmare. I wasn't really complaining - I just had to back out of anything that happened during the day.

Well, after months of this, Jack's nap has now shortened to an hour. The presumption I'm making? The poor guy was so sleep deprived after all those sleepless nights that he needed the huge naps. And now we're down to normal ole' one hour naps. AND we're sleeping at night. AND life is livable.

And then there is Abby. Awesome Abby.

Abby has been plagued recently with fears from some teeny bopper show on Disney channel that came on after Phineas & Ferb and before I got back to change it. Some sort of episode where there was a statue of an evil princess who possessed another character and made them do bad things. The statue was in a garden so Abby has been fearing gardens, statues, all sorts of things and just having a tough time.

We've talked it thru a dozen times. She once described it that she was walking along fine and this show dropped in her path and she couldn't figure out how to get it out.

Well tonight she comes downstairs an hour after bedtime and I am just barely containing my frustration when she says she wants to talk to me because she's made a huge decision.

Okay I think, fine. And I walk upstairs with her and she says that it will affect her problem with the gardens and the movie (new fear). Fine I say, with not a lot of faith, I'm afraid.

Abby tells me she was thinking about these fears and then she thought suddenly, "but why should I be afraid of these things?" And she decided she was ready to get them out of her path.

I told her how proud I was of her and that that was exactly right and she said, "Yeah, this feeling just came into me and I knew that God was finally working."

This girl. Reminds me not to give up. Things do get better if you just keep trudging along.