We live not a mile from some new highway construction. There are no trees or even houses to block out view of the goings on. This isn’t really a nuisance during the day, but they’ve been working all night, too. My husband and I sleep in a room at the back of the house and the shades on our windows pretty well block out any lights from oncoming cars and the worklights of the road construction. Our poor little one though has not been so fortunate.
About three nights ago she woke up saying there was monster in her room. Upon examination we could not find anything that resembled a monster, even in the dark. It wasn’t until the third time she got up that I discovered that her “monster” was in fact a shadow from the tree in our front yard cast on her window shade. Her window shades do a pretty decent job blocking out moonlight, but car headlights and the worklights make a pretty spectacular show right through them. Even during the day she hates the sound of the cars barreling down our road. Since most of the side roads are cut off because of construction and one of the major north-south routes has been closed too we get a lot, and I mean a lot, of traffic 24/7. I’ll be glad once construction is done and our road will no longer go through.
Anyhow, two nights ago she got up again to get a drink of water and go potty. She said nothing of scary noises or lights so I put her back to bed. The second time she got up she woke my husband from a deep, deep sleep. He in turn pokes me to get up with her, again. This time she had escorted herself to the bathroom and just sat there. I had a feeling it was just a pretext to get out of her room. When I helped her clean up I noticed she had not gone potty and she didn’t want anything to drink. Upon returning her to her room I asked her not to wake daddy up anymore because he has to go to work in the morning.
Well, apparently she paid attention because the third time she got up she didn’t wake either of us up. She merely found a pillow and plopped herself right down on the floor next to our bed sans any covers. It wasn’t until my husband awoke the next morning and asked if she was on the floor next to me that I even realized she had come in the room. I felt kind of bad because I didn’t mean for her to do that.
Last night she immediately asked if she could sleep in our room. I agreed to let her fall asleep in our bed, but that daddy would have to move her to her own bed once he came to sleep. She seemed OK with that. She proceeded to inform me, “I’m not afraid of the cars in here.” This comment confirmed to me what had been bothering her the last couple nights. I’ve been trying to think of something opaque enough to block out the light so it won’t bother her. She got up again last night and daddy let her sleep in the bed. Bad idea. She kicked and squirmed so much that neither of us got much sleep. She’s not so tiny anymore. I might just have to have my hubby go to lowes and get some blackout shades for her room temporarily. The road construction isn’t slated to be complete for another 2 years and we can’t have two toddlers running to our room every night when the worklights get too bright!
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
