I am tired this morning. Actually I am tired many mornings. Why? Because I have one child who likes to get up early. This morning it was 4:45 am. Not only does she like to get up early, but she doesn't like to be up all alone. Actually, I say 4:45 because that was when I realized that all the kids upstairs were awake thanks to Emma.
This has been an ongoing issue. We have tried many things. At one point we told her that she could go downstairs and watch TV quietly. That didn't work out because she raided the kitchen, my moms stash, my husbands secret stash and mine. So for a while I would get up with her at her extreme early hour. However, I am not an extreme early riser and wasn't too nice. Finally I permanently moved Larissa downstairs and told Emma to stay in her room and read. Of course most days she doesn't do that, she wakes everyone upstairs and they tear up the house until I decide that I can't ignore it anymore. They do stay upstairs for the most part, we have gotten that far.
She does sleep. I try to make her stay up until bedtime but often she tries to fall asleep on the couch. On those occasions when I send her up to bed early, she will scream when woken by her sister when she goes to bed. The child who wakes everyone in the morning can't stand to be woken up herself. She doesn't understand why I don't have much compassion when it comes to her being woken up.
This is an issue that we have been dealing with for over 2 years now. We had hoped that as she aged she would begin to respect the other kids and learn to read or play quietly. So far it is not happening.
This morning she is in the garage. Now, the garage does have a couch, carpet and heating....plus a lot of toys. It may become her sleeping area. I don't know, this has frustrated me so much. No consequence has worked. Now I just want her separated from the others so that they can sleep. I don't have many options for bedrooms downstairs. Anyone out there have any suggestions? I am tired and open to new ideas.
The alarms don't work? Or are you like me and can't use it because you have another child in the room who comes in late and goes in and out? Otherwise, if the alarm goes off, you lose all privileges for the day. But I am up at 5:05 by necessity anyway.
ReplyDeleteAlarms don't work in this case because she wakes everyone in her room first then they all start to rough house and scream and tear up their room and wake everyone else in the household. This is all done without leaving the bedroom. On school days the kids are up at 6 am (except for Larissa) and on the weekend the other kids would sleep until 8 if Emma didn't wake them. I know this because I put her in the room with my mom one weekend to see if the kids would sleep later. Yep, they did.
ReplyDeleteFrustrating.
ReplyDeleteYour girls remind me so much of my 8 year old daughter with RAD, and I have found she just can't share a room. The sibling she shared with felt like a hostage in her own room, exhausted and dreading nights. So, our 8 year old has her own room, and if she wakes people, she loses the privileges most near and dear to her. In fact, if she wakes people, then she obviously is too tired, so she ends up with a very boring day, with very boring food (of course plenty of food!), so she doesn't have to "use up too much energy being so tired." Since she also has FASD, cause and effect is a really difficult thing for her to grasp, but if we are super consistent, she does get this stuff over time. We're even to the point where she can say why she does it, which is because quiet makes her uncomfortable, so she wants other people awake with her. We also give her melatonin before bed and run a fan for noise. We have told her we cannot make her sleep, but we can control how her day afterward turns out, because keeping other people up is unfair to them.
ReplyDeleteYep, you must have my Emma. I am running out of rooms! Might have to get creative.
DeleteWhite noise and room darkening curtains is what I have had to do with my child who is an early riser.
ReplyDelete