The Plan....

So, most of you know that my princess is not a good sleeper. She has never been a good sleeper, literally from the day she was born she would wake up multiple times during the night, which continued until she was about 2ish, she still will wake up 2-3 times a night for various reasons, and yet no matter how tired she is she will be awake for the day between 5 and 6 am like clockwork.  I have never had to wake her up for school, or anything else....this might sound odd, but I would LOVE to be able to be the first one awake in the morning and have breakfast ready when everyone wakes up, but my princess always is awake first...

I wont bore you with details of conversations, incentives, bribes, demands etc....that we have tried, all to no avail...
this year we changed pediatricians for her (she LOVES her new dr) and with that came new discussions/ideas etc...on how best to help Athena get the sleep her body needs...about a month ago we chatted with her dr and decided to have a consult with the pediatric sleep disorder dr.....who ironically is the dr that Josh saw when he was diagnosed with sleep apnea....anywho...

Today we met with him thanks to my awesome friend who got us in sooner  (Nikki you rock!!)  Since she already had her adenoids out this past summer his plan to start is behavior modification....basically we are going to make her body think it is being deprived of sleep, and once she is able to sleep more than a couple of hours without waking we will start to retrain her sleep cycles......Here is the part that makes me nervous:  Normally her bedtime is 7pm  --yes, I know that is early, but she is so tired and wakes so early that this has been working (sort of)--- and she is normally awake between 5 and 6 am.  Now the plan is to keep her awake/put her to bed later but still wake her up at 6am no matter what.
I am willing to try this, I shared my apprehension with the dr about this , and here is why:
1) with her current sleep schedule we (meaning me) experience extreme mood swings, unpleasant behavior, outright meanness,crying, fits etc...
2) she is already tired when she wakes up, and towards the end of the day.   keeping her up later will mean more/longer periods of unpleasantness ...
3) This is selfish, but the ONLY time I get alone to do anything is after the kids are in bed, and on the nights Josh works late, I get almost 2 hours TO MYSELF.....this will become nonexistent during this trial...and the selfish part of me doesnt want to go through with it becuase honestly, I NEED some time by myself....
4) I honestly dont know if I have the patience, calmness, energy and whatever else that I will need to go through the normal daily routine in our house (cook,clean,drop off,pick up, work, etc...)  and not lose my sanity.....Tonight I will let JOsh know about the appointment, and talk about the plan etc...I can;t do this without his help.  That might mean he will have to get up "early" on his day off, or a late day to help me, he will have to be patient and understanding with Athena while we are doing this, otherwise I dont think it will happen.
I know, some of you are reading this thinking...what is the big deal? Athena will stay up later, why are you writing a (rather long) post about it....well, lately I feel like I can't add anything else to my plate, I feel unappreciated, and like I am doing 99% of everything, so taking away my small space of time where I can be alone with my thoughts, decompress, sit at the computer, veg, or watch a grown up show on tv, stresses me out......
BUT- my girl needs this, and no matter what I will figure out a way to make it work for her, so she will feel better, and be more successful in life by learning these skills that for some reason her little body has not let her learn.
So....thoughts, ideas etc...definitely appreciated....if you see me at work, or church , or anywhere and I look like I might be going just a little crazy, dont be offended if I dont see you, or wave or smile....its nothing personal, I am just coping...and helping my daughter.

Happy Thursday!  I will post once we start this sleep training thing, and keep you all posted on our success (see optimism right there!)  :)