Adventures in Babysitting

I don't need to sleep!

I went out tonight and had a babysitter for Ashlyn. Her name is Ashley. She is a very sweet girl. Apparently, too sweet to let Ashlyn cry for even a couple of minutes to get to sleep. I left here at 6:20, and told Ashley our bedtime routine (minus a bath) clean diaper, pajamas, milk, brush teeth, book, and then to bed with music. Ashlyn goes to sleep pretty easily. If she is overly tired, she might cry for a minute or two. That is it. She does not need to be rocked to sleep or held or anything. If she cries for longer, I might rock her for a bit, but I still put her down awake. Perhaps I should have emphasized this point to Ashley. When I came home at 10 pm, Ashlyn was awake and crying, while Ashley was holding her in the rocker. I thought maybe she had just woken up, but then Ashley told me that she had a hard time getting her to sleep. I couldn't believe it! Almost 3 hours after her regular bedtime, and the kid wasn't asleep. When she told me everything she had done to try to get her to sleep, it was all the wrong things. She rocked her, brought her downstairs and gave her more milk, rocked her more, put her down and stood there, rocked again. Ashlyn's no dummy, though. I'm sure she figured out that if she cried, Ashley would pick her up. Of course, she would prefer to be held. It could be worse. Ashlyn could have actually needed her, while Ashley was downstairs talking on the phone or something.

(Ok, I think the story may be a little confusing with the Ashlyn's and Ashley's. We should definitely name our next child Ashley or Ashton.)