Save Our Sleep!
I guess I was one of those lucky parents who did not know what it felt like to be up all night after the age of one. I trained my son to sleep from 6pm to 6am the next morning. If I woke up tired it was because I would have slept late watching television or surfing the internet. Many may envy me, but who would have told me that my life and sleep would soon suffer.
Just before the new baby was born, my son started experiencing nightmares and was now scared to sleep in his room. I soon fell into the trap of lying on the spare bed in his room until he fell asleep and then sneak out. I was successful most of the time and then other times I would hear him whisper, mommy come back.
This continued throughout my pregnancy; my back was aching from sleeping on that bed. I had been forced to abandon my plush top mattress for a spring King Single bed! Why did we even buy that bed? The bed needs to go! These were the words I muttered to my husband each night I woke up limping because it was just too uncomfortable.
A week before the baby was born I knew I had to help my son out. He was sleep deprived and struggled to sleep as he knew that mum would soon sneak out and he would wake up in the middle of the night and not see his mummy.
Yes, I hate to say it but I had to let my son understand that his room was safe and that I wasn’t going to sleep in his room anymore. I knew that with the new baby it would be impossible and I was certainly not going to be torturing myself after my C-section. I let him cry a few times and after the second night he was back to normal and he was the child that I once knew.
After giving birth we weaned our son from his cot. We moved him to the bed and left the cot in his room for almost 3 months. Then one fine morning we asked him if the baby could have his cot. He was happy to give it away and share without feeling like the baby was taking over his belongings. What no one told me about the toddler bed is that your child officially declares themselves a grown up and will leave their bed as they please; even if it is 2am. We started getting late night and middle of the night visits. I was already struggling with my sleep as I am up nursing every 3 hours; and add a toddler that just walks into your bedroom as he pleases and invades your bed. One night I heard my husband say in his sleep; you need to go back and get your pillow. He too had enough of his pillow being snatched at night by our son.
This continued for weeks and now my toddler was talking about the cave and the bear and how it was going to get him. That bear hunt book was becoming a reality; my son must be having vivid dreams and was now afraid of the dark.
Ok there is light at the end of the tunnel; if someone would have told me that it all lay in the hands of the owl I would have given him all the owls in I had. You see the owl is a night light that looks like a cute and chubby cuddly plush owl with a big belly that has a light inside it. It has a 10 minute timer and can go to bed with your child. That is all my baby needed. A night light; he is since sleeping well and we have not had our little night visitor return to our bed yet.
