Hello sleep my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…Within the sounds of silence.
So here is one of my parenting conspiracy theories…they always tell you that around 3 months or 12 pounds kids start sleeping through the night and then life is easy. But once you are in the secret toddler society, then they tell you about additional waking hours and trips to join you in bed. Yeah they hide that until you graduate.
We always felt blessed, Nolin was not originally a “schedule” child (meaning his bedtime varied all over the place) he was a great sleeper. I was nervous that we would never be able to wake him up when he was a teenager. Eventually we established a schedule and things were even better.
This was followed with potty training and then the occasional 2am wake up call for a quick bathroom break and back to bed…totally manageable and a small price to pay to say goodbye to diapers.
Grace didn’t wait for us to wise up and get her on a schedule, she did it on her own.
Life was good…
Then we hit a rough patch. At this point I am not exactly sure how it happened or when it happened, but I think it quickly aged me.
Last Sunday seemed to be an all night affair between both kids. Regardless of the lack of sleep we still seemed to manage a great day on Sunday with a little train ride that the kids loved.
But Monday, our miracle came in the form of an Amazon.com box…Nolin’s Halloween costume (can’t post pictures yet). As I opened the box I had the opportunity to witness a moment of pure unadulterated joy. This gave me an idea…
That night when we went to bed, I sat Nolin on my lap and we made a deal. If he could stay in his bed all night and then make good choices and listen to his teacher the following day, he could wear his costume that night.
We had one easy quick bathroom wake up and one Grace wake up…it was a miracle. The next night we made the same deal. This time, I think Nolin pulled Grace in on the action. Both kids in bed and asleep before 8, no wake up calls.
Within the sounds of silence…
I forgot what it felt like to actually wake up refreshed…it’s amazing! Knock on wood because this has continued even considering this past weekend we traveled to Virginia for my brother’s wedding. Let’s just say schedules didn’t really exist.
Although being off schedule caused a few abnormalities in behavior during the day, (Nolin waking up convinced he needed to save the animals and Grace wanting to be held by Jenn & I 24 hours a day) they both slept through the night.
I guess if we want to continue to enjoy the sounds of silence through the night, we have to get a little bit better at working by their schedules, not ours.
Our Modern Family 