Dad putting older child to sleep

[widemouthedfrog]

I have a lovely 6 year old daughter who had tremendous sleep issues until she was around 2 1/2. She still needs us there when she falls asleep, and I don't mind this at all. Dh had a hard time with the sleep issues, so I've been the person who's put her to bed since she was a baby. I've been away from her for 2 nights for the entire night, and when I go out dh puts her to bed.

However, my problem is that I have a number of chronic conditions and I'm often tired, so when the lights go out in her room and I sing her a song, I fall asleep half of the time! This is not really a problem, as we play musical beds. However, it is a problem for my time with dh. If he puts her to bed we get to spend time together.

Unfortunately, dd does NOT want dh to put her to bed when I am in the house. We tried for a while, and she was ok with it sometimes, but there was a lot of crying too. I suggested it again last night and this resulted in 25 minutes of sobbing.

She did mention that when I was out she was ok with dh putting her to bed. I'm thinking that I may need to go out swimming once a week near her bed time just to allow dh to put her to bed. However, that seems like a lot to do just to get dd to be with someone else before bed.

Any thoughts on alternatives or ways to transition her gently into someone else doing bedtime? It's not complicated, it just involves a story, some chatting, and a song, and she's usually asleep fairly quickly (15 minutes or so).

For the record, I LOVE putting her to bed, and it's a wonderful snuggle time that I will miss when it ends. However, I do need some time with my dh.

[HappyMonkey]

Do you have a close neighbor you could visit for a while 2x a week? That would take less time than swimming, and maybe once she gets used to him putting her to bed it will be okay? I wonder if there is some special ritual he could create with her that would make it even more special?

[widemouthedfrog]

Thanks Happy Monkey. After our hard discussion last night, tonight I made myself "busy" on the computer. She was really tired and decided that she could go to sleep with dad beside her instead. Don't think it will work every night, but it's a start!