I think my daughter has incredible nightmares. That must be the reason why she fights going to sleep.
Maybe it is just normal baby behavior, maybe its not, but either way Evelyn does not like to go to sleep. I have a few theories about this, should it not be normal. Before I get to those, though, I should also point out that the sleeping habits of this little girl are both amusing and oddly interesting to me at the same time.
There have been instances where she falls asleep in a manner that makes you think a light-switch has been flicked off (or on, depending on your perspective) and she is out like a light. One minute, smiling, cooing, and making other noises, but within the blink of an eye, she's out like a narcoleptic who just drank cough syrup.
I don't know about that analogy... can narcoleptics drink cough syrup?
Other times she eases into sleep like she's landing a plane. Gradually, slowly nodding off and eventually closing her eyes and fading into a deep rest.
Then there are the times I'm talking about today, where it appears sleep is an army of marauders, invading the battlefield which is her mind. She fusses. She cries. She screams out as if stung by a bee.
Finally the marauders make their next step and victory has become theres, despite the heavy losses they've sustained in yet another successful campaign to get my daughter to sleep.
My two theories for this are as follows:
A) Like I said, she's got nightmares and she's afraid to go to sleep. This is possible, as she has recently gone through one of, if not the, most traumatic experience of her life - being born.
Could you imagine having to relive, every night as you slept, the nightmare of having your brain crushed in a vice as you are being pushed through a small tunnel, only to be suddenly and viciously yanked free from the tunnel into an alien world filled with giants and wires and tubes and some strange man with a reddish colored beard pointing a device at you saying, "I'm your daddy, hold still so I can get a picture?"
Yeah. It is a terrifying thought.
B) She's trying to learn and sleep is getting in the way.
She's new to the world and I think her small mind is trying to grow faster than time will allow. She's taking in new colors, smells, things that feel different, taste different, sound different and so on and so forth.
Everything is fresh and new and she wants to learn and sleep is getting in the way. Like Leonardo da Vinci, sleep is her greatest inconvenience and obstacle.
Of course, there's theory C) which I really don't count and that is simply she just does not like to sleep.
In any case, she likes to fight it, though it is an enemy she has yet to conquer.
