Timothy.
The child has never been a good sleeper. He started off well enough as a newborn waking every two to three hours to eat. Sadly, this never developed much further. We were stuck at two to three hour increments for a while. When he started day care and would be so distracted during the day he wouldn't drink too much from his bottles so he was up at night. Then, just as we were getting ready to really try some sleep training the ear infections started. And they lasted. He had a consistent ear infection from December until May. After he got tubes we seemed to have our problem solved. He slept through the night the next week. Yet, this too was short lived. It lasted from about June to October. I was trying to think about this time and I was so confused because I could not remember for the life of me getting full nights of sleep. Then I realized why. Of course as soon as he started sleeping through the night Elphie came along and was up throughout the night as newborns are supposed to do.
Anyway - at the young age of 21 months Timothy decided to transition himself to a big boy bed. Unfortunately, because he was so young he did not get the concept of stay in bed. So he would consistently get out of bed at night and come into our room. After weeks and months of this (plus getting up with a newborn), we got to the point around January where we were too tired to walk him back to his room and would just pull him into our bed. And this my friends is where it all went bad. Timothy is now so used to sleeping with us he doesn't do well sleeping on his own. A typical night he will go to bed around 8:30 (depending how much of a fight he puts up) and then come in to our room about 2 am where he will sleep until it's time to start the day. This is not pleasant. I'm telling you. Timothy in the bed and often a dog or two, plus getting up occasionally with Elphie. It's not okay. I have tried to "take back our bed" but each time I get so exhausted after 4 days or so I give in. We need a solution. I'm sad to say that I think we are going to have to try the baby gate approach, i.e. placing a baby gate at the door to Tim's room so he can't get out. But that has problems in itself. First, the dogs like to go into Timothy's room and sleep with him so the gate will prevent them from coming and going as they please and they will scratch and wine. Second, Timothy will cry and could wake up Elphie. Third, - when Timothy cries so much he gets worked up and almost always ends up vomiting. Fourth - I can't deal with the unpleasantness of it all.
So that's where we are. Oh and don't get me started with his struggles to actually get him to go to bed at night. That's an entirely different issue.
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| Anyone see a problem here -- this shows Timothy's bed but Annie's the only one in his bed. |
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| Timothy-- why can't you sleep on your own? Such a snuggler. |
Elphie.
I can't really complaint. She was better than Timothy from the start. Would do four or five hour stretches off the bat. Plus when I got up with her I would only be up for 15 or 20 minutes max. I had hopes this would lead to 8 hour stretches. Yet -- this too never developed. Although we got to the point where we were pretty consistent with only once a night wake ups and even the occasional sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, this last week -- not so much. Up two and three times a night plus up for 45 minutes to an hour at a time. I can't do it. I'm too old. Plus when I try to come back to bed after getting her to sleep, Timothy's in my spot and I have to push him aside. Ugh. She seems to be teething. Please keep your fingers crossed we are nearing an end there. All I can do is turn to Tylenol.
And that's where we are with Elphie. We will see what develops. For both. These kids are lucky they are so cute and sweet.
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| Elphie in her child's pose. Usually can't get pics of her sleeping cause she wakes up with the flash. |
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