Sleepless in Paso

Our sleep saga continues.

Jerad was gone last weekend on a little boys retreat and I worked hard on to keep Marshall entertained, aka worn out, and well rested. Saturday we went to the Zoo in the morning, story time, the park, and ran a bunch of errands. Naps all went off without a hitch. I decided to try the earlier bedtime idea and had him fed, bathed, and in his room by 6:15. He played quietly and was passed out by 7. Perfect!

Until he woke up at 1:45am and was ready to PAR-TAY! Until 3:45. Not cool baby, not cool. But it was the weekend and he was in a fabulous mood so I went with it. I tried laying with him in his room but he kept trying to bring me books to read in the complete dark so I gave up and we watched a movie until he randomly announced "nye nye" (night night) and walked to his room.

Sunday we went to the Children's Museum, visited a friend, did chores around the house, and played outside. I again put him to bed at 6, he played quietly for a bit, and when I peeked in at 7 he was passed out. He slept straight through till 5:45am which is pretty much his normal waking time. Success!

Monday I was a little worried because there was no way we were going to be able to have him in bed by 6. Its just not possible with our schedules. We all got home a little after 6 and I kept reminding Jerad we needed to have Marshall ready and in bed early otherwise it would return to WWIII. Sadly that didn't happen. It was almost 7 by the time he was in bed, he played until it got dark at 7:30, then was up until 10pm.

10:00 pm.

Jerad was officially on nighttime duty since he had the weekend off. He tried everything. Warm bottle, teething meds, playing quietly with just the nightlight, a snack, a movie, snuggling. No dice.

Finally at 10 Marshall passed out. Then he woke up at 2:45 and was up (and NOT happy) until almost 4. Then we started our day at 5:45. Marshall has this ability to wake up happy and smiley and ready to seize the day no matter no how rough the night was. Jerad and I? Not so much...

It's hard to pin down what the issue is. Kids have phases of good sleep and bad sleep and we're just stuck in a rut right now. I know part of the problem is it getting darker early. We can try to get him in bed by 6, but really that's just a temporary fix since soon it will be getting dark at 5pm and its not like he is ever going to have a 4pm bedtime. "Sleep begets sleep" only goes so far. He's just the kind of kid who needs time to wind down quietly ALONE before going to sleep. So I'm thinking a nightlight that is dim but bright enough to light up his whole room will help. maybe one of those fancy ones that has a timer and gets dimmer and dimmer till it turns off?


He's also teething 4 molars at the same time which I'm sure is killing him. He is definitely going through a growth spurt evidenced by him eating us out of house and home, not fitting into shoes and clothes that fit the day before, and not being able to walk under some of the furniture that he could easily clear last week. He is just getting over a yeast diaper rash which I'm sure was pretty painful. His language is exploding over the past few weeks, and as with any new development it can screw with sleep patterns.

He's got a lot of cards stacked against him so its really hard to pinpoint what the actual issue is. In the meantime we're just trying to struggle though and realize that this too shall pass. I guess if nothing else its good preparation for having a newborn soon that will certainly be waking us every few hours all night long for the next few months/years.