Sleep problems rear their head again!!

I am stuck in a dark room with white noise on at the moment. It’s nearly 10pm. We are having some sleep issues with my daughter again- what a surprise!

We thought we had actually turned a corner with her recently and she was largely sleeping through the night. We turned her cot into a bed and she was excited. She had the best sleep She had ever had waking up even after her brother at gone 7am when she is usually a 5.30/6am waker. For 2 nights.

Then for the rest of the week bedtime has been awful for everyone involved. She is fine if I put her to bed- takes a long time to go to sleep but does eventually go off. But for Daddy she just will not go to sleep. She screams, she stamps her feet, she escapes the room to come and find me- she is so good at opening doors- she has tried hitting, pinching and biting Daddy. It must be so hard for him. Even though he knows she is just 2 and it will be a phase that passes (soon hopefully) it must be quite hurtful for him.

It’s no fun for me either to be honest as I have to go from one child to another and rarely get downstairs for some time not being mum until at least 9.30pm.

If we just had our daughter then I would say we should pick our battles and just do her bedtime together every night for a while. But we have a nearly 5 year old too. Since before his sister was born we have been taking it in turns to do his bedtime. And it’s a lovely chance to have some one on one time with him which is tricky to get otherwise. I’m not entirely sure how we will manage this phase to be honest. I am repeating my mantra “This too shall pass” to myself at the moment though!

A little update- becoming a pre-school music teacher

I have not posted on this blog for a long time now. There is a rather good reason for that and that is I have re-entered the world of work. I am now on career number 3 or 4-should I count being a stay at home mum as a career, I really don’t know. It was certainly an all consuming thing that I did and very much consumed my identity!

The job I have taken on is being a pre-school music teacher for children aged 0-4. For those people who knew me as a medical negligence lawyer this is a radical departure from what I used to do for a living. For those who knew me when I did my music degree and then worked in various arts venues, not so much. I do remember saying on graduation in the late 90s that the only thing I didn’t want to do was teach! Here I am….

The job was advertised in January. At the time I wasn’t sure whether to apply or not. I felt that I really would be suited to it- it was a music job, working with both children and their parents, sort of putting on an interactive show for them, and it was daytimes and term time only. What more could I want. It had come up a year earlier than I wanted to start really, as ideally I would have started after my daughter was at pre-school. I decided though that as I would have jumped at the chance of this job from September, I didn’t want to miss out on it for the sake of a few months.

Since I found out I got the job I have had several training sessions and spent lots of time learning songs, rhymes and dances, and cajoling the children into being my test subjects! Our house is now full of random puppets and instruments that I have to hide from the children or they will try to play with them!

My classes started on Friday last week and I add Monday morning classes in just over a week’s time. I like having a job again. I like having another purpose in addition to the children, I like having colleagues, I like using my music degree. I really liked seeing the babies and toddlers in my class last week and how much they liked what we were doing. I attended these classes with both of my children-am still attending them with C. We have loved going to them. Both children have got a lot out of them, and I think they helped my boy gain confidence with other children in preparation for pre-school.i hope other mums and their children enjoy these classes as much.