ledge.

scrapblog entry. not that interesting, just for my own personal recollection. one day, when he sleeps until noon, I will laugh at/possibly be jealous of myself at this point. Also, I have no idea why the typing is weird and certain words are highlighted. 

Me. If I was a weird colored frog.

Anderson is seriously the BEST thing in the world. 

He is seriously the WORST sleeper. 

Grrrr. 

A normal night with him includes this routine:

8-8:30- start calming down (this is difficult. the boy has a lot of energy)

8:30-9- begin the process of putting him to bed (brush his teeth, use the potty, read a book, night light, sound machine, Scout playing music)

9-anywhere between 9:30-10:15-I sit on a pillow on the floor in the living room (it is literally right outside of his room, so he can still see me) and ignore him every time he gets up to tell me one of the following: 

Cover me up, Scout fell off the bed, I need a drink/snack, I have to go pee pee, What are you eating, Bobble?, I need some medicine, I need another blanket, I heard a siren!, etc.  He eventually falls asleep. 

1:30, 2:30, 3:30, etc: He wakes up. If it is a good night, he will only be up once, which is awesome/still pretty sad because he is freaking 2 1/2. He appears next to my side of the bed and usually scares the absolute crap out of me and I bring him back to his bed. I turn on Scout and sit on his floor for 10-15 minutes until he falls back asleep. Sometimes, I fall asleep there, too. That is the worst because apparently sleeping on the floor as an adult isn't quite as good to your body as it was in middle school.  I go back to my bed and then he usually will re-appear again about 2 hours later. Repeat. 

5:45 ish: He wakes up and is READY to go! The boy has a built in alarm clock, I think. 

So, there you have it. I realize that this has the potential to be 8 hours of sleep and I should be happy with this. And, I would be (probably not) if it was uninterrupted sleep! He is tired. 

If you are thinking that I should start his bedtime routine earlier, not sit outside of his door/in his room, lock him in his room, make him cry, not give in, or anything in vicinity of "TRAINING" him to sleep better, then congrats to you on having awesome kids. We have been battling this sleep thing basically since he was born, but really intensely since Nov. when we switched out of the crib. I read somewhere during my obsessive stalking of the internet about this that the worst thing you can do is move them to a toddler bed before they are ready to understand to stay in it, at least after 2. I kept reading, waiting for the part about what to do if your kid is part mountain climber and saw the crib as practice by 18 months. Nothing. 

The point is, we made him cry it out and it worked  well  when he was little. He always woke up early, but he slept through the night! We reversed his lock to trap him in his room, which also worked for a few weeks. But, a 2 1/2 year old is not a 12 week old. He is stubborn and clearly doesn't care if he is going to sleep. 3-5 hours of crying at night will take a toll on your life/sanity, so we have figured out a way that works for us. I sit on a pillow and read (or do one of my 9 million blog posts) and, while it is frustrating, it's much better than the alternative. It works because I am sitting and doing something. 

Anyway, I was sitting there last night thinking about how ridiculous this is and the patch saved me. Last summer I was hanging on the ledge by one little webbed foot because of how IMPOSSIBLE it was to keep the patch on him. Now (I am not talking to you, jinx gods!) it is a manageable (still the hardest thing ever, but not impossible like it used to be) situation. What if...just what if...next summer he is sleeping better?? AAGHH! It is too much. But, I think it will actually happen. This is not the best time with sleeping as I cannot actually remember the last time he slept through the night (Feb?), BUT I can leave him alone for minutes at a time and he doesn't take the patch off. This is HUGE and I would take this over sleeping any night of the week. Plus, I think if given the choice between the kid who is creative/active enough to climb out of the crib and one who isn't at all interested, I would choose my bug every time. 

So, there you have it. I am on the ledge because I have a non sleeping, eye patch wearing 2 year old. But, it is a pretty cushy ledge with a pillow, a book, a computer & usually an adult beverage of some kind, so it works out pretty well.