DO NOT BE FOOLED! The picture above is at school. At nap time. And although he is as peaceful as you can imagine and most likely went to sleep with the best of ease, that is so not how it goes down at out house. Elem is currently on THE worst schedule in the world! And I feel as if I only have myself to blame. :( For about the last year and 1/2 Seth and I have struggled with figuring out a way to get Elem to bed calmly and without a fuss! Here and there we have found things that work, but overall nothing seems to stick. I am a firm believer in routines, but I have tried them and they just are not working with Elem. Except for when the routine is in his favor. And currently, the routine in his favor involves the following type of night time routine:
6:00: Play outside, ride bikes around the block, dig in the back yard, etc.
7:00: Eat something for dinner, and usually take a nice visit from the ice cream man :)
7:30: Bath time, brush teeth
8:15: Pajamas, books, play on the couch with Sage, etc. (calm down time)
8:45: Lay down for bed.....with mommy on the couch
10:30: Fall asleep
Morning
4-7: Wake up and get in the bed with mommy and daddy some point during that time
8:00: Wake up for the day
As you can see this is just not working for us! Elem is literally not falling asleep until about 10:00 or 10:30 pm, and it is not due to the fact that he takes a crazy long nap during the day, or something weird like that, but he is just in this horrible night time rut. I hate to admit it but this horrible routine and difficult night time pattern really seemed to originate with the bad habits I created when I was nursing Elem. Since I was working from the time he was 2 or 3 months old, I really wanted to make sure that I had the chance to nurse him any time we were together, so night time was the majority of that time outside of school. He never had formula or anything like that, so I ended up letting him lay in our bed or on the couch or anywhere that I just happened to end up for the night that was comfortable with him on top of me! haha. And I was sooo tired from working that I didnt actually get up to stay up with him and nurse him, that I just did it on and off while I fell asleep and he did to. Anyways, even once we stopped the nursing, he still wanted to sleeping our bed. And although we have had months at a time where he would lay down in his bed or I would rock him to sleep, lay down with him, etc. and then move him to the bed, nothing is as crazy as this! My toddler is about to be 3 years old in just 2 short weeks, and he is still getting up about 3 or 4 nights out of the week to come and get into the bed with Seth and I in the middle of the night. And he is 35 pounds and so tall it is ridiculous. Lets just say he takes up my entire side of the bed. I keep telling myself that he will get out of this habit, or that he will finally want to sleep in his own bed, but time is ticking and he aint moving!
Keep your fingers crossed as Seth and I try to transition Elem to staying in his room through the whole night! We are also in a catch 22 because in the midst of the tail end of potty training for the night time hours, we also want him to get up and go to the bathroom, but not actually get into the bed with us after he goes. So that is making a HUGE jam in our night of full time sleep. I am not really sure how to make that all happen without him coming into our bed once he has gotten up to go to the bathroom. I know a lot of it is because I am so tired that I just do not want to stay up to get him off to sleep and then move him, but I just can not seem to get up for any length of time at night, or else I will be up for good. And then that is just horrible for me! I am so not a morning person, the one thing Elem actually did get from me, so we both need our sleep or nobody is going to have a pleasant day. hehe.
Tonight Elem is sleeping, and lets hope it is for the entire night. At least till 7am :) Then the question is just whether or not I can actually get up at 7 without putting him in the bed with us so I can get another hour of sleep.
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