Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep...

I need to know...

how to get this boy...

to sleep at night!

Lately, our little guy has been challenging us at the bedtime hour (not to mention all of the other hours of the day...but right now, let's just focus on bedtime!). I will begin by saying that he has never been a "good sleeper". I take full responsibility for my part in this...I was never good at letting my kids "cry it out" and thus, I had lots of sleepless nights during the baby days. Self-induced, I know...but I also have to say our eldest and our youngest were exceptionally fussy babies (we actually did have a "good sleeper" with Chloe - so we had a little taste of what that was like!). :-)

Lukas shared a room with my husband and me for the first few months of his life and then we moved him into the girls' room (all three of the kids shared a room in our little 2-bedroom duplex!). This worked OK until he realized he had an audience and soon he started interfering with their sleep!

That summer after Lukas was born was one of VERY little sleep for our entire family...he was fussy, he wanted to nurse [what seemed like] all of the time, and, as I said, he just never slept great. To add to all of that, both of the girls were struggling with eczema (a skin condition) - and were often awake in the middle of the night scratching, crying, and very uncomfortable!

Eventually, though, things settled down and all of the kids seemed to be improving in the sleep department. Then, Lukas learned to climb out of the crib...and the pack-n-play...and so we moved him to a toddler bed. Once again, we had to move him back OUT of the girls' room and into ours, so he wouldn't wake them! Can you see why we were looking for a 3-bedroom house???

While we lived with dear friends for several weeks last summer, it took Lukas the longest to "adjust" to our new living quarters...and when we finally moved in to our new home, he had his very own room! To our dismay, he often has tears at bedtime, because he doesn't want to be "alone"...

Of course, we know SOME DAY he will be so proud of his very own room and he will relish in having his own space, but now - especially these last few weeks, he is having a hard time. He has always wrestled with knowing how to settle himself down, so we have focused on having him stay in his room. He can look at books, he can listen to music - as long as he stays put!

Many nights we will find him sleeping on the floor, like this:

Or this:

Even though he has a perfectly comfy bed to sleep in, like this:

But last night...last night was a rough night. We have been giving Lukas swats as a consequence for coming out of his room...but it lately has not been working at all! So, last night we decided to take four items away each time he got out of bed. Often, the consequence we give (and sometimes even the reward) will correlate with the age of the child - since Lukas is four, he has a four-minute time out, or four swats, or gets to take four books to bed to read - of course, sometimes this has no bearing and/or just doesn't work - it's just something we have used! Anyway, we explained this new "consequence" to him and soon took four "animals" away when Lukas came out around 8:00 PM (just 15 minutes or so after we had put him to bed). That was when the screaming began. He tested us four more times in the next hour and a half...and lost a total of 20 items! What kid has 20 things in their bed?, you might ask. Well, the last four things I took were his pillow, his "rice pack" (each of the kids have one and we heat it up for them before bed), his puppy and his "zuffy" (fuzzy) fleece blanket. He was sooooo mad at me! That was around 9:20 PM and after about 10 more minutes of screaming, it was finally quiet.

This is what I found when I went to check on him:

He was totally and completely zonked out!

I gently put him back in bed, tucked him in, and placed his stuffed animals back around him...as he ought to be.

I wonder what tonight will bring?

If you have any great ideas for getting feisty four-year-olds to sleep, Jason and I sure would love to hear them! I'm feeling a bit at the end of my rope...but I'm praying for the Lord to give me PATIENCE and ENDURANCE as we train our children. It is with a HUGE sigh that I'll say I'm sure one day we will look back on this and laugh...but sometimes I have a feeling that day is a LONG way off!!!