Sweet Sleep Success

About a month ago we entered into a whole new phase of life with our kids. Everyone sleeping through the night.

Life is amazing.

You know that scene in Disney's Cinderella when she's first waking up, and even though she has a ton of work to do and everyone is waiting for her to do everything for them, everything is still sort of wonderful? It's like that. Birds come in to wake and dress me; mice tailor my clothes; I carry on full, one-sided conversations with animals.

Okay, maybe it's not quite like that, but life seems much more doable lately. Things were getting pretty bad for a while. It seemed like we had Charlie's reflux under control enough, but he was waking me every hour or hour and a half just to be held for a while (or even to get me to cave and bring him to bed with me--when did we become a co-sleeping family?). It was getting to the point where I was fighting migraines about every day and life was just not working very well. So each week for a while we had a new project with Charlie: get him to take bigger feedings, get him off the hypoallergenic formula and onto a regular (well, gentle) formula that would keep him full longer, wean the nighttime feeding, etc. Then we were ready. Not emotionally ready, but otherwise sooo ready. It was time for sleep training. We worked with him a lot, developed a routine, etc. But ultimately, Charlie did all the heavy lifting. I think learning to sleep in your own room, in your own bed has got to be more of a challenge for kids than learning to walk or going to kindergarten even. But he is a champ and slept through the night by the second night. Naps are still a bit of a guessing game every day, but we are happy with 11-12 hours solid at night.

We had already decided it was time to get Ellie out of the crib finally. For a girl who will climb anything, it somehow never occurred to her to try climbing out of the crib. So we left her in it. I was worried how she would do when she wasn't "caged," so to speak, especially since she doesn't go right to sleep. Since she loves forts so much, I came up with this solution:


So she goes camping every night. If you have ever had trouble keeping your toddler in bed, just try putting a small tent around it. Works like a charm. She was so excited, she wouldn't sit in the rocking chair with me to read stories (yep, story time is in the tent now). I think she thinks she has to stay in there like the crib. Some mornings we've discovered evidence that she's been up after we've tucked her in, but in the morning she's always sitting in there, waiting for us to get her out. Sometimes if we take too long, she will call out to us, "Come get me!"

 It's been a big hit with the cousins.

(Ellie, if you are reading this in the future, you are not allowed to have boys in your room like this.)

We had to move Ellie to a different room to get Charlie set up, and I think she felt a bit displaced for a while. It was rough on her, but she was a trooper. She did wake one night with a nightmare about Grover (?!). I had to hold her and tell her Grover stories for a while. We talked about her reading her Grover books, flying with Super Grover, jumping on the trampoline with Grover (which is a pretty funny image when you think about it). She calmed down, and I got to spend some good time in the tent at 4:00 a.m. She's not so nervous being in her new room now.


Putting Ellie to bed almost always results in a funny story or two. Lately to get her to brush her teeth we've had to "name" her teeth. It started one night after she watched Snow White. When she was resistant, I said, "Wait, I have to brush Snow White!" And then each of the dwarfs followed. Some nights her teeth are various PBS characters. Sometimes that Buzz Lightyear tooth can be kind of tricky, always trying to fly off to space and we have to tell him to stay in her mouth (which she loves), but Sheriff Woody keeps him in line (hopefully the orthodontist agrees). It's a good system, but sometimes you feel a little silly saying, "Hold on, I have to get your Dopey tooth," or, "let me get your Tangled tooth." It sounds like this kid really needs to see a dentist.

Her routine keeps evolving, but one constant is that you have get her to say "goodnight" back to you before you leave the room.  Whatever songs or stories happen, that is her cue that it is over, no more begging for one more. She needs closure. If she says "goodnight" back, there will be no crying or complaining once you leave. Sometimes she needs a warning: "Okay, one more song, and then Mommy and Ellie say 'goodnight.'" Some nights, though, it's hard to get the word in. She will ask for an "Ellie story," then chime in partway through and talk a steady stream: " . . . and Ellie went to Tommy's house. And I go to the park with Daddy. And I eat popcorn at the bank. Tommy and Ellie play outside. I have to go to the store. I can't go to the store with Grandma. I go in the car with Grandma. I go in my carseat, and I push the button in the garage. And I can hold Baby Charlie! . . ." Meanwhile, I am sputtering, "Oh?. . . uh-huh . . . Oka-- . .Okay . . . Okay . . . Say 'goodni--' . . .Say 'good--' . . . Say, 'goodnight,' Ellie." I swear, sometimes it's like trying to tuck Gracie Allen into bed.

Every once in a while I have to go and clean her bed out.She gathers whatever certain "guys" need to be with her that day (I think today's crew included Woody, Buzz, a dalmatian, two plastic frogs, one of Charlie's teething rings, and a baby hairbrush). Then there are the board books that we read that day (library books are banned from her bed). And unfortunately, her water cup frequently finds its way in there. That started when she had a cough, so I brought the in there before bed. She saw it as I was tucking her in, "Oh! My water!" and immediately started chugging it down. I explained that it was for when she woke up during the night and started coughing (which she had been doing a lot). I said, "No, save it for when you cough." She looked at me, gave me a very defined, very fake *cough cough* and resumed drinking. I had just lost a battle of wits to a two-year-old.

Nonetheless, we are pretty happy with how sleeping is going these days. And if you see Ellie on that terrible Hoarders reality show someday, well, you'll know where it all began.