Nighttime Troubles Update

I wanted to get on and let everyone know how things were going with Owen's nighttime troubles.

1. Nighttime Invasions: Unfortunately, these have not gotten any better.  There are still some nights that he is in our room 2 times a night and others not at all.  It is still a little bit of a shock when we wake up in the morning and haven't been awoken at all.  We did have a few nights over the weekend where he would wake up wet (we had stopped taking him to the bathroom before we went to bed because we didn't think that he needed it anymore).  Well needless to say, we will start doing it again in hopes that this will help keep him asleep.  There was also one night over the weekend when I heard him calling out for me.  I went into his room and he was just waking up in his bed.  He was talking about spiders and that they were in his room.  I reassured him that everything was fine.  He asked me to turn on the "big light" (more on that later) and I told him no, that he was fine.  He asked me to stay with him for a little bit.  I knelt down by his bed and he held onto my arm for a few minutes....until he was asleep again.  It broke my heart a little.....he is having nightmares:(

2.  Nighttime Escapes: These have gotten better!  He did earn his play doh tractor (and another since then!!) so that helped a little.  Plus, Tony and I discovered that he was/is afraid of the dark.  One morning last week I was talking with him on the way to Gramma's about going to bed.  I asked him if he was scared.  (I don't normally try to put thoughts in his head, but was curious as to what his answer would be).  He talked about an "echo" in his room that was in a hole behind his bed-and it had a tongue that went in and out.  Later that night Tony went in to check on him and he had his room light on but was in bed.  When Tony asked him about it (being scared) he asked him to "make the monsters dead daddy."  We were both then heartbroken and convinced that he was scared of the dark.  We have a bedside lamp (the "big light) in his room that we used when he was little and woke up so we didn't have to use the regular light in the middle of the night.  We have started leaving that on and he has been better about staying in his room....notice I didn't say bed:)  It usually takes 2-3 times of us checking on him before he stays in bed and is not up with his toys, but he is definitely going to bed much quicker and easier.

I hope the scared of the dark phase passes quickly!  Makes this momma very sad for her little guy:(

Christmas Program (a little delayed)

Every year our church has a Christmas program for the younger children.  Owen is in the Toddler class (18 mos-3 years) and his teachers had been telling us he was going to be their star!  He practiced with Gramma while he was at her house and we practiced on the weekends.  He had a line to say "The baby Jesus small and new, came to save little me and you" and then they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  He practiced well...although when he sang happy birthday he would always say a different name each time.  The program also happened right around his birthday, so I was thinking that he would end up saying his name during the program:)  The first part of the program was the preschool and kindergarten classes, then the toddler and nursery classes came out at the end.  Needless to say, he was the star:)  His teacher ended up giving him the microphone...and lets just say that he rolled with it:)  The video here is of the second service, but it was definitely the better of the two videos since we were laughing and crying during the first service that the video is a little shaky!  Tony got a better position for the second service and we were a little better prepared for what would happen.

He is definitely our little star:)

NIghttime Troubles

I know that I have mentioned before that Owen was a GREAT sleeper!  After the initial "cry yourself to sleep" period with his naps, he always went right to sleep without much fuss.....until now.....

Unfortunately, over the past couple of months, he has been terrible about not only going to bed, but staying in his bed during the night.  The nighttime bed invasions started first.  It seems that when he wakes up during the night, he immediately heads towards our bedroom and attempts to crawl into bed with us.  We have never allowed him to sleep with us, except for the occasional Saturday morning when we were trying to coax a few more minutes of sleep out of him, so this is definitely a new thing for him to be doing.  Dutifully, at least one time a night and sometimes two, Tony or I wake up him to crawling into our bed and pick him up and carry him back to his.  (although I do admit that one of us has woken up at some point and he is all snuggled in and neither of us remember him getting into bed!!)  Sometimes when we are carrying him back I swear he falls back asleep for the short trip down the hall.  Other times, he wants to talk to us and makes sure that we have covered him appropriately before we head back to our room.  I wondered if he started waking up due to his ears bothering him (he his always itching his ears when he is trying to get comfortable).  When we have asked him about it, he says that he is worried.....He has mentioned things about monsters or bugs in his room or under his bed at times.  We do what every parent does at the stage and reassure him that there is nothing there.....and continue to be surprised when we wake up in the morning without a nighttime invasion.

Now to top off the nighttime invasions of our bed, he is refusing to go to stay in his bed when we lay him down.  It has been so frustrating lately....I can't even tell you!!  He is very sneaky now....crawling on his hands and knees down the hallway, hiding in closets or under our bed....We started with the discipline by putting him in bed and talking, which then escalated to spanking which didn't seem to be helping either.  We tried taking things away when he didn't stay in bed....then I suggested that he was looking for our reaction so we needed to just calmly put him back to bed without saying anything to him.  It seemed to help, but then things got worse (and daddy can only redirect so many times before he has a hard time not reacting-sorry honey! Love you!!).  I have even resorted to sitting in his room while he insistently tries to get me to talk to him.  That still took 45 minutes for him to calm down enough and go to sleep.....but now I think he works up to wanting me to do that, so I stopped that too.  Now we are back to putting him back to bed without a reaction.  I've also offered an incentive of staying in his bed for 3 nights means he gets to earn a playdoh tractor that he has been wanting......I'm not joking when I say that it is usually about an hour every night of putting him back to bed...AHHHH!  We contemplated taking away his afternoon nap, but we had a day over break where he didn't get one and it wasn't pretty....Gramma has been making sure that he is down by 1 and will wake him up by 3 at the latest to try and help at night. 

So....the saga continues for now.....I hope its just a phase.....this momma and daddy are frustrated and tired!