Starting over.

Thomas loves books of any kind, especially at bed time!


This is a writing textbook from University, but look how intently he is reading it!

This past week we got really bad with following the night time routine we had established. We wanted some down time and I guess we were just impatient, so we let Thomas fall asleep on the couch with Daddy while we watched movies. The end result was that he became increasingly agitated about going to be on his own, and wouldn't even sleep until at least 1am! He even woke up one night at 4am just crying, sobbing hysterically! I think maybe he had nightmares, but whatever it was it took an exhausting 2.5hours to soothe him back to sleep! The simple days of him going to bed by 10-11 were becoming distant memories and I had to stop it before it was too late!
Since Thomas was born I have enjoyed the advice and guidelines from www.askdrsears.com
so I turned to them once again. Their advice is practical, simple, and works for us. So we started again last night. After dinner he has his bath. Bath time leads to bedroom time. We turn off all the lights, turn off the TV, and make the bedroom a cozy haven. We massaged his lotion into his skin, and dressed him in a onesie for sleep. Then he had a cup of yogurt, brushed his teeth, cuddled up for story time with Mommy and Daddy. After story time Daddy kisses him good night and leaves, turning off the light. I sing to him and rub his back, and cuddle. Last night he tossed, turned, rolled around, sat up, walked around, climbed over me and fought sleep for around 1 hour.
Tonight, 20 minutes, and he was asleep at 9:30!
Daddy did mess it up by moving him to the floor bed because he is afraid he will roll too much and fall off the bed, but 10 minutes later he was crying and sitting on the big bed. So Daddy went in, laid with him and after 5minutes he was back asleep. This time Daddy constructed a barrier of pillows and the bamboo wife which seems to work well.
I realized from this that even though we can be lazy at times, Thomas needs a regular routine to be happy. He wakes up every morning around the same time, and knows that he gets a drink of yogurt, "mool", and cuddles from the Doumi. If he doesn't, he gets upset. Sometimes we forgot to buy yogurt and it made a big difference to his morning and evening routines. I was making yogurt for a while, but it became difficult with my work schedule so we now have his organic plain yogurt delivered 3 times a week.
He really is a good boy, and we are so blessed. We just need to remember to put him first, even if we feel it is difficult or tiresome at times. We work so much these days, but we are doing it for his future, so we need to remember that THOMAS comes first, no matter what!