Tuesday, April 28, 2009

musical beds

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Every night we go through a ritual that we call "musical beds". One night Jakey will start out in his bed, Scot and I sleep together, then Jakey comes in with us, I move to the guest bed, Jakey comes after me... and so on! We switch bed about 2 times a night.

Bedtime has started to be a nightmare. Something I think about all day long.

He will cry and whine about going in his bed... well then after a while I would just let him fall asleep in my bed since thats where he will end up anyway... since a few weeks that's not good enough. He wants me to fall asleep with him.

Lets look at the alternative: He will scream bloddy murder, he will get out of his bed a million times (believe me not even the Supernanny would have the patience for this), he sneaks downstairs and hides somewhere... sits there really still so I think he is finally asleep upstairs, he locks himself in my room and just turns on the TV AND knows to turn it on very low so I won't hear it. He calls me because he is "scared of the dark", needs a drink, needs to poop, needs to pee, needs me, needs this, needs that...

There are two nights a week I like to watch TV... in peace! Thursday and Sunday night. Thursday I love the comedies and Sunday all in want to watch is the Amazing Race. Do you think I get to watch 10 minutes at a time? NO!

See, and what makes me so furious is that we are talking about the little angle who I would lay down and he would fall asleep in his own bed AND on his own and would sleep all night in his own bed... something has changed! I am blaming it on turning 4!

I have tried to give prices, rewards, take priviledges away etc... nothing works.

We start him out at 7:30 and if I am lucky he will be asleep by 10pm... of course in my bed and me next to him.

Tonight... he wasn't listening at dinner so I told him he needs to go in his bed. Surprisingly he went and he is asleep now but I know he will be up again in a few hours. Before he fell asleep I told him for that every time he gets up or I hear a peep I will come in and take a toy away. I doubt he will remember that at midnight...

I want my little boy back who all you needed to do is give him a kiss and tell him "don't let the bed bugs bite you" and he would drift off into dream land.

5 comments:

  1. Hang in there Sonja. Probably just a phase. All three of my kids have done that. Im my bed, I go out, they follow me back to their bed, I escape and they come following a few hours later. Not so bad, except when they are all doing it. I have pulled all nighters doing this. Rest assure, though, that the phase only lasted a few weeks. A couple of weeks from now, he will probably be sleeping like a baby in his own bed. A few months from now, he better be...lol. Or he will have a little brother/sister who won't be very happy to share the bed with...teehee. Good luck. It will pass, I promise. Just don't give in and don't give up.

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  2. I absolutely disliked with a passion "4" with all three of my children. Maniacs!

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  3. Aua! It is painful just reading this. I feel so sorry for you and fear that my kiddo will some day do the same stuff. As of now, I am still enjoying a child that says she is tired and wants to go to bed.
    Hang in there - I have absolutely no useless advice :)

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  4. ugh... that stinks! Sorry to hear that! Maybe he just knows things are about to change...
    Good luck though! Maybe he'll come to our bed, when we're there ;)

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  5. First of all... it is scary how much all 4 year olds seem alike. Reading an earlier post- my Teagan, recently turned 4, way over uses the "Mommy, I need to tell you something." And it is usually her stall tactic... she wants to talk, have my attention, has nothing to really say so uses that line as a hesitator.

    The sleep thing... what first worked for us was bribery... I mean... a reward system. She went thorugh a phase of liking Mickey Mouse or something. So we told her- have a good bedtime and sleep all night, watch Mickey Mouse with the morning's light! The TV thing doesn't work so well now. But she is all about the sticker chart. So the first sticker of the day is awarded if she had a good bedtime the night before.

    Hang in there!

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