The tinyness (now 1.5 yrs) and I just finished up day 2 of our first week (ok - more like 4 days) sans pocket_amazon, who is on a much deserved birthday camping adventure. While we've had lots of fun adventures during the day, putting her to bed has been a challenge, to say the least.

She has been extremely sleep resistant, and this last round of going down for the night took 2 hours of rocking her, walking her, singing to her and generally trying to coax her into sleepytime. Anyone else have similar experiences when the partner is away? Any wise words for the weary?

Oh, Great Offsprung Pixies! Put this thread in my replies list, i'm gonna need it.

/prayer.to.offsprug.pixies.beta.v0.1

Yes, my child doesn't sleep well at all when one of us isn't in town. No I have no suggestions other than "this too shall pass" and some commiseration, and um, as soon as pocket amazon gets home, take a nap.

um, drugs? Actually, she might be nervous without her mom around...is there like a health food store that has homeopathic remedies available? You should be able to find something there to help, like pulsatilla or chamomile. (remedy, not tea.)

My husband went through this the first few times I had to travel for work. There were tears and not a lot of sleep. It did get better though. Recently I was called into work over night - kid went to bed and slept like a champ. Huh.

My husband a few of other times to help El D sleep was tire them out more than usual. Took him to the park after dinner for almost 45 minutes. Came home and started the night time routine. By the end of it the kid was wiped out.

So yea my tip is exhaustion.

I had the kids all day on Tuesday and had to put them to bed by myself. Jimbo went to see Motley Cruw ( I got him tix for our anniversary-it was on Monday...7 year). I kept those kids so busy all day long. We even went over to help clean up our friends house so it would be nice and clean when they brought their baby home-So we did not get home till 8:30...they fell asleep in the car. I let them sleep in their clothes, cuz I did not want to wake them up. I was anxious about having to put all three down by myself, but they were so tired they just crashed out.

Mightyninjamom- Pulsatilla for sleep? I don't know much about homeopathic medicine. The midwife I know uses pulsatilla to help turn babies who are OP. Do use homeopathic medicine? Can your recommend a book?

Shreddd - I recommend breaking routine a little bit. The routine is already a little shot with Pocket gone, so sticking to a regular routine just makes her absence more obvious. I used to do silly things - we'd have picnics on the living room floor for dinner, or I'd get a new bath toy like those soap crayons. And the advice about wearing her out is great. DW used to have a crazy schedule when GirlWho was about the Tinyness' age, and she got to where she looked forward to his being gone at night because she knew we were going to do something different.

sasy - I'll pm you!

What everyone else said, plus a bunch more commiseration.

You have to be careful with the exhaustion approach with some kids. My older son would have MORE trouble falling asleep if he got too tired and was FAR more likely to have a temper tantrum or a weepy breakdown right before bed.

I had, and have, more luck with crawling into bed with the boys with a story and/or some quiet music. It takes longer than normal but usually does the trick (of course I then wake up two hours later...)

thanks for the support y'all. i'll send y'all an update after bedtime tonight.

Tonight was much better. We actually called aii (aii=mother in Marathi) and said goodnight, which resulted in a minor meltdown upon hanging up. But once she calmed down, she went right to bed. I think the earlier comment about her being nervous was totally true. The strange thing is that she was actively avoiding thinking about her mother in any way for the first couple of days - she wouldn't say her name when looking at photos, she would pretend she hadn't heard "aii's" name when someone mentioned it. Talking to her on the phone broke the damn, but was probably an emotional release as well. Who knew that 18 month old children have such complex psyches??!!!

shreddd, glad to hear it's better tonight. The phone call is always a little touch and go for us - sometimes it comforts the Dragon and sometimes it excites, distracts or confuses him too much. I haven't noticed the avoidance here, though - I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time. Interesting.

Yeah, that whole complex psyche thing - look up John Bowlby (not Dr. Sears) on attachment if you want to really trip out. It's amaaaaazing. Kids are f*ing smart about people.