Bedtime with Cole - a week in review

Cole has NEVER been good at going to bed.  It has always been a struggle.  Out of convience for the adults in the house we chose to snuggle on the couch watching tv until he fell asleep.  We occasionally would try to put him to bed awake but it usually resulted in an hour of screaming or head butting of the crib, wall, or door.  We finally reached our breaking point the week we brought Siena home from the hospital.  We knew we had to break the habit of Cole coming into our room every night and sleeping with us and also he needed to learn how to fall asleep in his bed.  After a week of awful nights (full on tantrums at 2am that lasted for at least an hour) I talked with the peditrician about what to do or how to handle the situation.  Her suggestions we pretty simple - don't let him come out of his room when he wakes up in the middle of the night and no more couch cuddling.  

Starting this past monday we began our new bed time ritual.  Bath time is at 7 pm and we had been really trying to get him in bed by 9 pm but it just wasn't working.  So that night at 8 pm Mike and Cole went into Cole's room and Mike read Cole some books.  Cole was super into the book reading so this lasted about an hour.  It then took another hour for him to fall asleep.  Mike was out of the room at 10 pm.  Cole woke up at 2 am and ran to our room but I only noticed that he was there in the doorway because I happened to be awake with Siena.  He did not wake up crying or run to our room crying like he had been for the past 4 months or so.  Mike got up with him and about 45 minutes later Cole was asleep in his bed again.

Tuesday night we started with the same schedule and at 8 pm Mike and Cole were in the room reading and Mike was out of there by 9:30 pm.  Progress!  Cole woke up once at 4:15 am and was back in bed within 10 minutes.

Wednesday night Cole dragged Mike into his room at 7:45 pm and closed the door.  He pointed to the light switch and Mike turned it off.  Cole then pointed to his bug light and Mike turned it on.  Cole jumped in his bed and got under the covers and pointed to his books!  They read for awhile and then Cole pointed to the bug light and rolled over facing the wall.  Apparently he was ready for bed.  Mike was out of the room by 9 pm!  Cole slept the entire night!  

Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same - requesting to go to bed and then sleeping through the night.  On Saturday night he woke up once but was back asleep within 10 minutes.  

We are so proud of the little guy.  I think we are both a little bit embarrassed that the problem was us all along and not a grumpy toddler.   All he needed was a little bit stricter schedule and some reading and he is one happy kid.

I guess raising kids is a lot like raising dogs.  You have to train the owners not the dogs and with kids it is the parents that need the training.....