“The elephants are coming!”

The past few nights have been a bit trying. Susanna, for some reason, will not readily fall asleep when it’s time for “night-night.” We go through our regular roution and put her to bed… but soon after, she has not yet fallen asleep. Instead, she is crying and whining and whimpering, all the while saying “I want my Mommy!” and, “the elephants are coming!”

What’s more, she has been climbing over the crib railing and walking out of her room and down the stairs in the middle of the night crying for Mommy.

We’re tired.

Susanna hoisted herself over the side of the crib and was up and about on Thursday night while Ashleigh was out and I was down in the study working on some church projects. She walked downstairs crying for Mommy and informing me that she was scared of the elephants.

Friday night – Susanna clambered out of the crib, fortunately, before Ashleigh and I went to bed.

Saturday night, she was crying and on her way down the steps at 4am.

In order, to protect Susanna from “going bump in the night” and the potential hazards of allowing her to roam alone in the dark, we grabbed a baby gate and placed in in front of her room door. So, this way, even though she can climb over her crib rail, she’s at least confined to her room.

Last night’s episode featured crying at 2am (in the crib… and it was wailing, actually). I calmed her down and thought all was hunky-dorey — back to sleep I go. Well, at 2:30, she was out of the crib, trying to open the baby gate and crying for Mommy.

We’re not sure where the fear of elephants in the night are coming from. Susanna is not really afraid of elepahants otherwise… we talk about them, we’ve seen them on TV or video, we play and pretend to be elephants, etc… lots of fun or, so it seems.  And it’s still unclear if she’s having bad dreams/nightmares, or that it’s indigestion, or it is somemthing other.

Only when she goes down to sleep — be it nap time or night time — she gets all worked up over elephants coming to get her!  She is clearly expressing some fear before she even goes down.

We know it’s time to get Susanna out of the crib and into a “big-girl” bed. Thanks to Dan and Kathy for offering up their old toddler bed!

Ashleigh and I are now, feverishly trying to paint and set up her “big-girl” room and make that transition. We’re letting Susanna help and we keep informing her that this will be her room and bed to sleep in. She seems excited — and that’s a good thing. Now, we’re gonna have to lay down some rules and boundaries for Susanna so she’s not roaming willy-nilly and playing with her toys in her room.

Last night was the first coat of paint. We’ll try to get the second coat on ASAP, and hopefully, towards the end of the week, Susanna will be in her new room!

This may never happen as I will have missed the opportunity, but I’ve yet to actually witness Susanna climbing out of her crib — I’d like to see how she does it!