WHAT AN EVENING!

Alice started to cry hard about an hour after going to bed.

I went straight up and tried to calm her, she was adamant that she wanted, 'Mummy's bed!' I had worked to do and that just wasn't an option. Very quickly she wanted to use the potty, success and then back into her room and the tears began again.

After 20 minutes or so, having moved her into the BGB and lain with her for a while I crumbled (at the thought of things I still had to achieve this evening), Alice came downstairs and lay in her pushchair in the study while I fed the dogs, had supper and did some chores. She lay and giggled, peered at the TV behind her, called the dogs, tried to engage me in conversation and was generally happy but not at all sleepy. After I'd had supper I took her back upstairs (she started to cry before we'd left the study), she requested the cot not the BGB and cried hard as I came downstairs, within 5 minutes (2 hours later than usual) she was fast asleep.

Listening to crying is a very effective form of torture to me.