Sleeplessness Answer?

The verdict is still out...we just started it today...but in a very early moment of quiet before 5am, I'm fairly certain God gave me a great idea.

I've said for a very long time that Megan is afraid to go to sleep. I mean, she'll be almost ready to doze off, yet she will wiggle, clap her hands, kick her legs, sign mom & dad, whatever it takes NOT to fall asleep. It's been taking anywhere from 60-90 minutes every night. We've missed several naps, despite being absolutely exhausted. If there is one thing I KNOW about my sweet, precious daughter and sleep, it is that when we get into the cycle of not enough sleep, it is very difficult to get out of that cycle. Its vicious. And often feels never ending. She's been getting about 8-9 hours of not very restful sleep a night and many days refuses to nap. So, we are talking about a child who behaves absolutely horribly! Hitting, yelling, deviance, challenging and pushing all of my buttons.

We're back to waking up at 5am again. I so thought we were past this. But, she's getting her final 2 year molar (FINALLY!) so it could be contributing. Who knows. The other part is that she's yelling out more nights than not, at least once, if not every hour all night. By yelling out, I mean she'll thrash about, cry and yell something (typically, "Megan can do it" or "I need to go potty" or "Mommy do it" but her most common one "NO! NO! NO!"). It took me a few nights to realize she does this 100 percent in her sleep. One minute you think she's awake, the next minute she's snoring. Literally.

Okay, so back to the potential solution. I got this idea this morning...telling her that to grow big she needs to: eat healthy, drink water (another problem we have...not drinking!) and sleep. We've been talking about it all day. At nap time, she was asleep in 5 minutes. She hasn't done that for quite a while. So, tonight when it was time for her to go to bed with daddy, I said, "you need to sleep good tonight"...and she said "so I can grow!" So, maybe we've found the s1lver bullet? Boy do I hope so!!! Guess we'll find out in a few days!!