Party Girl

So, Gillian has decided it's more fun to hang out with her silly mama and papa than to go to bed at night. This is a recent occurence. Of the past five nights, we let her cry it out (CIO) twice. The other three nights, she went down awake and put herself to sleep. Crying it out is the worst kind of torture for all involved. Baby doesn't need anything, but she wants you to stay and play with her before bed. Or maybe she wants to stay up all night and party. At any rate, after 50 minutes of crying Sunday night (she won-I went to her and touched her to sleep in a few minutes), I decided we'll try anything before CIO again-including the various forms of wearing her down if she's wired.

This all reminds me of Sixteen Candles. One of the Geeky Guys Parents, in an effort to help him socialize, dropped him off at the local dance. He desperately grabs onto them as they turn to leave and frantically says "No! No! I wanna stay with you guys!!". Except going to bed is not quite a dance, but the frantic "I wanna stay with you guys" is right on. She is exerting her will, and just like we were amazed at her resilience in the beginning of her life, we are amazed by her stubbornness for what she wants now. The only downside is that in this instance fighting us = crying hysterically, which is innately disturbing. I am hoping she resolves herself to the peaceful nighttime routine in lieu of fighting the inevitable, namely, sleep...