Waking up .. at the right moment

Today has been a great day.

No, the wife is in her usual weekend clean up mode and the kids are doing the same things they do..

But there has been a marked change in me. No grumpiness for not being able to catch up on lost sleep from the last week.

There has been a positive attitude to things.

The last week has been very tiring with 2 AM phone calls and lots of work.

Decided to download an iPhone App called "sleep cycle".

This app uses the accelerometer in the iPhone, figures out when you are in deep sleep and when you are rolling around in the bed and times it so that you wake up when you are in deep sleep. The alarm sounds are wonderful and they gradually fade in to high volume.

As an added bonus, it keeps all the statistics and allows you to send the graphs to your gmail account!

In all my life no one has ever done a wonderful job of waking me up like this!

Thank you Sleep Cycle!

Thank you iPhone 3GS !

Thank you Technology !

Now all those <6 hour sleep nights are not going to be that bad after all!

There are other reasons for the exuberance.. but that will be explained later..

.

Please sleep with me

It has been a while since daddy slept in his bed.

Let's say that it has been since the little one was born..

During the recent India trip, San had somehow made sure that the LO went to bed on her own. I never believed it. When I got back, the LO tried her "daddy, please sleep next to me!" puppyface routine and without realizing what a mistake it was,(and being guilt ridden for leaving her and going to India), gave in and slept next to her two days after I got back. She promptly used my hand for a pillow and went back to sleep.

Then we tried to say things like "remember how you slept on your own in your bed when daddy was in India. Do that and make us proud ! " etc. and it seemed to work. Still, she would wake up at 3, 4, 5AM and come to our bed and say "daddy , you lied. you are not next to me" or "I have bad dreams" or "my tummy hurts" or just plain wail for 30 minutes till I relented, afraid that she would awaken everyone else in the house.

That went on for 2 weeks.

Yesterday, she slept on her own. Cried at 4AM for 15 minutes and I came over and gave her my hand to sleep on.

Tonight, while drinking milk before bedtime, she asked me

LO : "daddy will you sleep with me"
me : No. sleep by yourself and make me proud
LO : but, but, I will cry!
me : why should you cry? you are a big girl. your akka sleeps on her own in her bed. You want to be like your akka right? go sleep on your own.
LO : but I am going to wake up and come to your bed.
me : If you wake up and have bad dreams or something, I will come sleep in your bed later. But right now, go sleep. I have work to do.
LO : I am having a bad dream
me : (!!!???!!!) what do you mean?
LO : I am having a bad dream right now daddy. will you come thacham(tamlish kidspeak for sleep) with me?
me : But you aren't even sleeping yet!
LO : I know. I am just trying to see if you will come...

so much for the deviousness of a three year old.

If the little one was a three year old boy, would he be this devious? the eyelash batting, the puppyface, the devious logic... somehow this has to be part of her being a girl and don't think anyone is even teaching her this stuff. Mommy doesn't do anything like this.. at least not in the last four years...Mommy just glares at daddy if she want's anything done! So where IS she getting this stuff from? Has to be in-born right?

I know.. I know.. that last paragraph is going to spark something somewhere, but cannot help thinking that!

This is like making a four month old baby to sleep through the night.. all over again.. except this time making her sleep through the night on her own!

I need to be strong
I need to be strong
I need to be strong
I need to be strong
.
.
.
.
.
Okay will write it a hundred times in a notebook somewhere.. and yes, didn't cut paste it 3 times.. actually typed it! and that should show you how serious I am about the being strong part.

.

5 minutues to half an hour

A bedtime conversation:

Me: kuttyma, go sleep on your own from today please. If you do, I will give you a present when you wake up.

LO: No daddy. Please thacham with me..only for five miniss please. then you can go!

Me: okay, but only five minutes.

LO: (all smiles, kisses her blanket) and cuddles up

Me: (after 10 minutes) Five minutes aachu(done). I will have to go eat my dinner, do some work.. and I will come back and sleep with you.

LO: Five minis innum aala (five minutes not yet over)!

Me: No. it is over.

LO: No. it is not over.

Me: okay. Five more mins and that is it..

LO: (repeat happens 3x ) and finally she sleeps after 40 minutes!

Well that was earlier this week.

here is what happened yesterday(after the first 5 minute episode)

Me: go sleep now. Five minutes is up. I have to go eat. I am really hungry. I will come back in half an hour and sleep

LO: okay. peas come back in halfnhavar okay?

Me: okay..

Five minutes later I hear her scream "daddy", "daddy" . rush in worried that she might wake up the sleeping Jr.

LO: halfnhavar aachu (half an hour is up).Come!

Me: It is only five minutes.. go sleep I will be back in half an hour

LO: No! Halfnhavar aaacchu..

and there went dinner for another 40 minutes..

The most important lesson here is that ....

Daddy is wrapped around the LO's finger!

.