[et_pb_section admin_label="section"][et_pb_row admin_label="row"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text admin_label="Text"] Ah, sleep...remember it? Remember when you could just go to bed? Remember when you could wake up on the weekend whenever you wanted? Yeah, me either. It's been that long. Seriously.
When my oldest was little, I thought he was horrible to put to sleep at night...he needed me to lay with him and rub his back and tell him stories. After he was asleep for a few hours he'd wake up and come looking for me which resulted in me either bring him back to his bed or moving over to make room for him. Guilty, yes, I know, I created the monster. When he was around 5 it all stopped. He went to bed without fanfare, a tuck in, a rub on the back for a minute that did not require my having to lay with him and off he went to dream land.
Then came baby #2...he is a whole different breed of child. He's exactly like his father when it comes to his sleeping patterns. He wants to be up all night and can fall asleep basically anywhere at anytime during the day if he's tired. Last summer I had a ball taking pictures of him crashed all over the house in different spots after full days at camp, he's that kid. Fast forward to last night. A friend said maybe it was because of the time change (4 days ago), I have no idea. What I do know is that it's the most freaking annoying thing on the planet! Last night I laid down with him at 9:30, which is already 30 minutes passed his bedtime. We chatted, he wanted water. He came back to bed and then needed a tissue. We chatted some more, another tissue and another sip of water. A lot of huffing and puffing from me. Now it's 10:15, "mommy, I'm not tired"....UG! I tried for another 20 minutes until I finally couldn't stand it anymore and got out of bed. I told him I didn't care what time he fell asleep, he was not allowed to get out of bed, he had to stay there. That lasted about 10 seconds...long enough for me to get settled on the couch with my iPad and TV remote. As I watched him tip toe into the living room, I turned off the TV (all the lights were already off ) and told him he was not allowed to lay on the couch with me. So the little rat sat on the floor and proceeded to play with his super hero action figures. All the while I'm screaming in my head "what the hell is wrong with this kid?? How is he not sleeping"!!! He finally succumbed to sleep at midnight, on the couch, where I happily left him until he woke up at 3:45 and walked into his room to go to bed. He arrived back in my room at 6am only to be walked back by me, and woke up like a fresh daisy at 7:15. I thought for sure he would be giving me a hard time this morning but nope, not the happy go lucky, dimple faced cherub that he is. He wanted Cheerios and green milk because he's reading "Green Eggs & Ham" and it's St. Patrick's Week at school. Fine, whatever, meanwhile how much sleep did I actually get? Who the F knows? I haven't slept a full night in over 10 years. I hear everything, I have a husband that snores (sorry babe), and I have a kid that roams the halls who I often times play musical beds with - yeah, you know what that is. It's also the reason we bought them good mattresses - because if I was going to be sleeping on them they had better be comfy! :)
I don't have any good sleep advice in all honesty and here's why....every kid is different. Some require more sleep than others. Some need to be scheduled, some can go with the flow. Some need to sleep with something or someone others could care less if they were sleeping on a rock. Kids are funny creatures. Except at bedtime - at bedtime, they're monsters!
Here's to hoping for some sleep tonight!
xo
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