Our vacation to Disneyland gave us wonderful memories and we had a FANTASTIC time but … it ruined Bobby.
Before Disneyland, he slept in his crib. We could give him some milk, lay him down, leave the room, and he would sleep Then when he woke up, he just stayed in his crib looking at books until we came to get him. If we took too long, he would knock on the wall repeatedly to let us know that he was ready to come out.
This is no longer our Bobby.
On our trip, Bobby learned how to crawl out of his crib and insisted on sleeping on top of either Kevin or me. Not ideal in any way. We hoped this would change back to normal at home, but it hasn’t. The crib came down the first day back (after he climbed out) and he was no longer content to be put to bed alone. Kevin took on that challenge.
We tried the crib mattress on the floor one night. Bobby wouldn’t even touch it. It was evil to him. Kevin spent most of that night on the floor with Bobby on his chest. If, and it was a big IF, Bobby fell asleep enough, Kevin could slip him off and leave the room. However, don’t put him on that evil mattress or he’d immediately wake up again!
Tommy had a few issues with falling out of bed, too, so we still hoped the situation would fix itself.
Because he wasn’t sleeping well at night or for naps, my baby boy fell asleep more randomly. Like at dinner …
So so cute, but not a regular occurrence when your mom is a Nap Nazi.
After a week of no improvement, we tried a new tactic. We had Rusty go in with Bobby. Our hope was to teach him that the mattress was NOT evil. Bobby’s hope was that he had a new bed mate! Rusty was really good with him. He would calm Bobby down when he was crying and they slept together pretty well.
After a week of that, though, Rusty was ready for his own bed again.
It worked without Rusty once. Just once.
Bobby still wasn’t sleeping well without company. Sigh. Back to Kevin.
The mattress wasn’t quite so evil, but Kevin’s chest was a better alternative in Bobby’s mind.
So was sitting behind a chair at 5 AM looking at books … just to annoy your father!
Add the fun of trying to keep him from wandering the house at 5 AM, so we put a baby gate up in his bedroom door to keep him in. He pretty much hated that. In the middle of the night, he’d open his door, call to us from the gate, cry because we were ignoring him, and end up sleeping on the floor.
Bobby had been making really good progress about going to sleep in his bed with very little parental involvement as summer went on. Then he got sick with a high fever for several days in early August and we were back to needing to be held (and looking so sad because he felt so awful) …
I would love to say that nearly 3 months later, Bobby is sleeping like a champ. And he IS better, but not much. Billy now shares a room with Bobby – he has his own bed, no brother bed sharing! Bobby’s mattress is not evil and he does sleep on it every night. The gate is down and he doesn’t come out wandering until 6 AM now. His go to bed routine includes at least 3 stories, quiet music playing, a drink of milk, and, most recently, a firm hand on his knee as he falls asleep. One or the other of us, sits in the rocker near his bed as he falls asleep and he insists we touch his knee. Not every time, but most times. Sigh. Someday, it won’t be so tricky to get this child to sleep. And, yes, I know he is my baby and I’m spoiling him. But, he is getting his nap and sleeps long enough at night again, so I say that we survived the summer of weird sleeping quite well!