Noah vs Bedtime

My sweet little boy… he is getting better at it, but he is still such a pain in the rear when it comes to sleep.

We have had more than our share of bed time problems with this little two year old and yet bed time continues to be a thorn in my side with this little one.

It’s not so much that he puts up a fight at bedtime… we’ve past that… in fact he lets us brush his teeth after going potty, gives daddy a kiss and happily climbs the stairs to go out to his room. Once there he crawls right into bed… well on most nights… and waits in it until I have Abby changed and in her crib. He lets me change him and some days even gets his night time diaper out of the dresser cabinet. We then lay in bed and read a story or two… lately The Going-To-Bed Book has been our book of choice… and say our prayers (…in German, the way that I have always said my prayers). Then… well… then I tell him that I have to go downstairs and clean the kitchen because if I don’t there will be bugs… yes, I know it’s a terrible thing to do, but it is effective (he looks at me with these huge eyes and quietly says “bugs… ewww” then lays down) and it has pretty much eliminated what used to be 45-90 minutes of bedtime drama.

I wish I could say that he goes right to sleep, but I can’t. About five (5) minutes after walking out of the kids room I can hear him get up, walk to the door and start to whimper… “Mami pah-tee… pah-tee mami!” I open the door and he walks straight to the master bathroom (he can’t go into his own until the remodel is finished). I find it amazing that 95% of the time he will actually go “yellow”, despite having gone not more than 20 minutes earlier! Then it’s back to bed… another mention of cleaning the kitchen and bugs and out the door I go. Some nights I’m up there again a few minutes later, while on others he’s good with that.

We can usually count on him sleeping for 3 hours or so then until sometime between midnight and 1am. That’s when he wakes up again. I try to get him to go back to sleep in his bed. It doesn’t last long though and he usually wakes within 30 minutes again. At this point I know that Abby will be awake in the very near future looking for her personal milk bar and I am just so tired. He doesn’t have to put up much of a fight and I have him in bed with Ray and me. What follows is a restless night of sleep with hands and feet poking and prodding me… pushing my blankets away when I try to pull them up.

Part of me wishes that he would just sleep through the night in his bed… his twin bed that we just went and bought a new mattress and bedding for. But then again… I know that this wouldn’t last forever. While he is a big brother, he’s still so small and young… I often forget that… expect more of him than I might if Abby weren’t here… and so I take him into bed with us and let him sleep there. Because I know it won’t always be this way… and besides it’s nice waking up to a smiling face.

I guess in the fight of Noah vs Bedtime, both win a little and both lose a little… and as long as there are no tears shed I’m okay with it.

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