For now, I thought I would record some of my favorite things about Caleb's sleeping so that I won't forget them! Caleb is a really good kid, but he is not a good sleeper. He has the capability to go on less-than-average sleep and still be happy and pleasant all day. It was so hard to train him to fall asleep on his own as a baby. We got lots of advice about letting him cry himself to sleep. It would take around an hour for him to cry himself to sleep, and it was torture for me to listen to him. When he was old enough to stand, he would cry himself to sleep in a standing position with his head and arms resting on the top of the crib.
When we transitioned him to the "big boy bed," that created more issues with him getting out of bed. The bottom line about his sleep issues is that he's scared--of what exactly we're not sure. If he could have his way, he would have someone sleep with him all night. We've tried night lights, leaving his light on all night, hall lights, a picture of Jesus, and we've had several conversations about monsters, shadows, noises outside, etc. and how the Holy Ghost will protect him when he gets scared. We've also done motivational steps like earning toys and getting to make cookies with Mommy the next day when he sleeps all night. We've had weeks and maybe even a month where we felt like we were finally making progress, but at 3 years old, Caleb is still waking up most every night in the middle of the night. In the beginning, he would just wake up and then come sleep on the floor outside our door where we would find him the next morning. He's since learned to crawl into bed with Mommy and Daddy, and then the battle of taking him back to bed begins. We've now bumped the incentive up to getting an ice cream cone at McDonalds whenever he sleeps all night. Matt and I have been stumped about what to do, because he is genuinely scared at night. Caleb doesn't take naps anymore, and we've discovered that if we keep Caleb up later, then he tends to sleep harder at night and doesn't wake up. That's not a solution we necessarily like though, so we're pretty much just holding out for when we feel Carter is old enough to move into Caleb's room. We're crossing our fingers that this will solve Caleb's waking-up issues at night.
A few weeks ago, my parents babysat so Matt and I could attend a church function at night. They did the bedtime routine, kissed Caleb goodnight, then came downstairs. An hour later they started up the stairs to check on the kids, and this is what they saw. He just needed to be close to them (without them knowing because he didn't want to get in trouble), so this is where he ended up. I love this little boy.
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