Do not go gentle into that good night...

Ahh...as another naptime battle of wills comes to a close, I feel the need to bemoan the misery that is getting Gillian to go to sleep. Gillian hates to go to bed most nights, and she especially hates to go to sleep during the day (for which I revert to the old swing crutch). She even hates it with our immutable evening routine: cuddly bedtime nursing, new diaper, get dressed in sleepsack. In that order. Then we rock. Every now and then she goes down without a fight, but most nights go like this: sit down in rocker, Gillian stares at monsters with occasional grunt or out and out talks to the yellow bunny monster; Gillian realizes that it's bedtime and it occurs to her that she has left many things undone and is not ready to or interested in going to sleep; Gillian squirms, grunts, rubs her face against my neck and shoulders, pulls at my clothes and/or hair, fusses, squirms some more and fusses. This goes on for 10-15 minutes at diminishing levels of intensity. Till she's still and limp, and I put her down in her bed where she sleeps like the dead. I am thinking that this nursing/cuddling/holding/rocking/patting/rubbing is pretty luxurious and that she should reward me for being so generous and selfless by slipping peacefully into slumber, but she doesn't see it that way. My consolation (and it is huge) is that she sleeps VERY long stretches once she's down, so 10-15 minutes is nothing in the grand scheme of our nocturnal sleep bliss.

Sean has a different approach, which doesn't work for me (for I am the Keeper of the Milk)- He does all the above, may or may not rock her very briefly, then puts her in the cosleeper, where she cries as he lays on the bed facing her and soothes her. She only cries for a minute or two with his method, and then he gets up and leaves her quiet and awake to fall asleep on her own.

The difficulty we as parents face with getting this very young baby to go to sleep-a baby who is yawning, rubbing her eyes, and fussing/crying while he eyes are constantly shutting from sheer exhaustion-makes you wonder "why is this soooo hard"??!! Doesn't she KNOW that she needs to go to sleep? Is this the beginning of the famed "I'm the parent and I know what is good for you, whether or not you do" vs. "you're not the boss of me" battle already??

".....rage, rage against the dying of the light....." Hhrrmpph. Indeed.