ZZZ is his least favorite letter.

Ohh, the woes of sleep problems in children. Who knew it took so much to teach a child something that seems so easy. Every time I think that we have settled the "last" sleep problem possible...another one appears. If I were to take a mental, off-the-cuff tally of previous problems they would include:

-not sleeping through the night for the first 6 months

-not falling asleep on his own

-learning to comfort himself back to sleep in the middle of the night

-transitioning to a big boy bed

-staying in the big boy bed

-falling asleep in the big boy bed

-staying in his room after bedtime

-the laundry basket

Unfortunately this list is probably not all inclusive, and unfortunately we started to tackle a new one last night. For his entire life Josiah has joined us in our bed between 6 and 7am. We didn't set out for it to be this way, but we weren't opposed to the habit. It used to mean we got a few extra minutes of sleep. However, I have recently noticed that Josiah was in our bed a lot earlier than usual. The problem is I often don't wake up when he first climbs in bed. I wake up an hour or two later when he is saying, "Scoot over. I don't have enough room!" like he is entitled to space in my bed or when my back is killing me from being squished in an undesirable position.

In the last week (during the nights I actually got to sleep in my own bed) I isolated his new trespass time to be 2am. My assumption is that he is waking up at this time at night, and rather than resettling himself to sleep he is climbing in bed with us to comfort himself back to dreamland. Last night I woke up when he came in, and I took him back to his bed. I thought it would be a pretty simple tuck-in. Instead, battle ensued, and 5o minutes later he was finally quiet in his own bed and I was staring at the clock hoping to fall back asleep after such an interruption. During those 50 minutes I heard several complaints including, "I don't like sleeping by myself," "I'm cold," and "I'm scared." I only really believed the first one, though.

I have extra motivation to resolve this sleep habit as soon as possible, as I know having a newborn will interrupt my sleep enough. I certainly can't handle bad sleep during the time I am afforded to close my eyes between feedings, and I also have to protect Josiah's ability to have uninterrupted nights away from a crying baby. That being said, my husband has an incredible ability to sleep like a log and I am only home at night half the week. Anyone with a child knows consistency is key in breaking bad habits. So...I don't anticipate this will be as quick a fix as I would like. Here's to a newborn pre-game warm-up compliments my 3 year old.

On the upside...I did reacquire my laundry basket last week without difficulty.