My Little Insomniac and His Furry Sidekick

I’m not sure what’s been going on with W’s sleep lately, but I am NOT a fan.  He had been doing great since transitioning to his big boy bed.  2 months of pretty good sleep.  It was fabulous!  But suddenly, the past 4 days, he’s gone to sleep around 9pm and woken up around 4 am.  A has been able to get him back to sleep, but he only sleeps until about 6am.  It’s making me crazy.  And A’s the one doing all the work.

W goes to bed around 8 and for the next hour, it’s toss, turn, get out of bed.  Repeat that cycle over and over.  He can’t seem to settle down.  Previously, he’d go to bed at 8, maybe toss and turn a bit, but he’d stay in bed.  It was great.

Last night, A tried laying on the floor – thinking that as long as he remained nearby, W would fall asleep.  Let’s take a minute to laugh at that idea because it was clearly the worst idea ever (it was my idea – mom fail).  I watched on the monitor as W propped himself up and looked at A lying (is it laying or lying??) on the floor every minute – for about 45 minutes.  Now that’s persistence.  He did stay in bed, but he never fell asleep.  I don’t think he fell asleep until around 9:30 – MY bedtime!  And he was up at 5am.  Before the alarm went off.  What.the.heck??  That’s not even enough sleep for me.

I’m frustrated.  Every time sleep seems to be going well, things take a turn for the worse.  I’m sure this is all normal, but I never expected it.  Silly, naïve me.  I’m also sure that A and I are somehow to blame… we probably didn’t reinforce good sleep habits early on.  Or maybe I just have an insomniac on my hands.

The only thing I can think of doing is earlier nap time.  The kiddo just doesn’t seem to be tired and can’t settle down around 8.  But why now?  Nothing has changed in our bedtime routine (that I can think of).  So why does this seem to be occurring all of a sudden?

As if that weren’t bad enough, the dog decided to sleep on me last night.  She had been afraid to come upstairs for the past week.  I had set some bottles of dry shampoo on the stairs after shopping and meant to take them upstairs to put away.  Well, I forgot about them (surprise, surprise) and somehow Addie knocked them down the stairs, which made a REALLY loud noise and scared her to death.  So much so that she would not even attempt to go upstairs.  This is shocking considering she’s ALWAYS by our sides, following us from room to room.  At least W found the scene hilarious and now refers to her as Dee Dee Boom Boom.  Anyway, I felt bad for Addie, but I have to admit, I was enjoying not sharing a bed with her.  Well, that all changed last night.  Addie suddenly decided that the stairs were no match for her, pushed open our bedroom door, and curled up next to me in bed.  At least I can solve this problem.  Addie girl is getting shut out of our room for the time being.  But W remains a mystery.  Uggh.  I swear those two work together, teaming up on mommy and daddy!

Look at me!  Who needs sleep?!?