DD has always been persnickity.  She's picky about food, clothes, whatever- and usually we can work with it- it's just the way M rolls, you know?  But she hasn't slept since New Year's Eve- at least not for more than about 2 hours at a pop.  She's very clear about what she wants.  She wants to "not sleep."  I know 4's do this stuff- but usually the power struggle is over food or clothes or baths- not sleep.  I mean, I could get the whole idea of wanting a nightlight (which she has) or to sleep with us (which she wants to do but will not do while there is breath in my body)- but to reject the entire concept of sleep as something she simply chooses not to do?  Really?  This is a thing people actually do?  

I'm flummoxed.  I've talked to the pediatrician (no good advice accept to wait it out) and my shrink (who reassured me that eventually she would sleep and that I just needed to keep my head together until she did), but none of them have offered much real support in the way of "here's how to fix this problem."  And that's where I am- I need this problem fixed and I need it fixed now.  

So each night goes like this- M goes down about 7:30, begs me to "check on her" when I'm done putting her brother down, which I do.  She's always asleep at that point.  At 9:30 or so, she calls for me and accuses me (with the kind of righteous indignation only a 4-year-old can muster) of "not checking on her."  (It has now become apparent that "check on me" means "stand in my room and stare at me on the off chance I wake up.")  I settle her back down, and we repeat the dance at 2 hour intervals until 6 am.  Each awake period lasts approximately 72 hours.  (Okay, maybe 30- 45 minutes)  During those periods she (and I) become increasingly irrational and demanding- which is to be expected when one has started channeling a zombie.  Zombie's aren't big with the higher-order thinking either.

So help me MTers, you're my only hope.

(By the way, DH has been trying to do his part, but he's a second grade teacher and the results of his sleep deprivation are much gnarlier than mine.  Plus his response to cranky, irrational daughter is to get frustrated and angry with her inability to reason.  Not so much with the helpful- plus I"m still awake because I can hear them through the baby monitor. Apparently the monitor functions on a frequency which only I- like some kind of maternal german shepard- am able to hear.)