The Bedtime Blues

Well, I am feeling back to 100% now so praise God for that! Unfortunately, I have the bedtime blues. Things with Ewan have taken a downturn. I am hoping that this is the darkness before the dawn. We hit a few setbacks...

Last night I had to teach my Bradley class and after I laid Ewan down for bed he got out. I excused myself quickly, said a quick prayer that I would just need to lay him down only one time, and put him back in bed. Well, apparently I am supposed to be learning about patience because Ewan got back out of bed. I can't teach my class and train him to stay in bed so he got to join me. A 2 year old extrovert's dream come true!! Thankfully he was not very distracting and my class was very sweet about it. The rest of the night wasn't too bad--Ewan got up around 12:30 and did the jack-in-the-box thing about 10 times and got up a little before 7 this morning. Not too bad except he went to bed 2.5 hours late and was running on fumes this morning.

So then we come to nap time. From 12:30-3:00 I put him back in bed over and over and over and over (somewhere between 200-300 times). It was a contest to see who is more stubborn. Eventually when Isaac woke up from his nap I got Isaac up and put Ewan in Isaac's crib. Ewan was asleep within 10 minutes. I woke him up about an hour later because is was 4:30 and I wanted him in bed as close to 7 as possible.

We have done LOTS of verbal rehearsals on rewards he gets for staying in bed but he just has to test the waters. It is almost 8pm now and bedtime has been a battle. He hasn't come out of his room in the last 7 minutes or so but I think he is camped out on the floor of his room in front of the door on top of his blankets. Maybe he will fall asleep there...sigh...I hope this is the worst of the night.

I really need a good night's sleep tonight as lifting a 34 lb. kid over 200 times in one day is pretty exhausting on the muscles--not to mention my heart! I can't even begin to tell you how many times I prayed for patience, love, peace, submission. The sad thing about it all is that I long to shower him with praise and rewards but I can't. My love for him is just the same regardless of whether he obeys or not but I would rather show him tender love than tough love sometimes.

What is hard about it all is that Jon is not home and I feel like I am dealing with this by myself. He isn't here to switch shifts with me or trade sleep. Sometimes it makes it hard to believe that this is one of the costs of ministry! In my mind I know the Lord with with me but my heart is having a hard time rejoicing from this challenge. It does make me thankful that Isaac LOVES being in his bed and going to sleep though. I know not to take that for granted now!

I suppose for now I will pray without ceasing and practice rejoicing in the Lord.

Ugh....I think I spoke too soon about Ewan's blissful entry into the big boy bed. Last night he got out of bed over 30 times. Probably 2 or 3 before midnight and then all other 30+ times after 5am. I don't know what was going on with him but basically I continued to put him in bed until 7am when it was okay for him to actually get up. I don't know why he didn't go back to sleep but our suspicions lie with some kind of poopie incident since he had a poop when Jon changed his diaper this morning. Normally my nose catches a poopie wake up at an odd hour but it didn't last night. Perhaps it is because I have been sick and running fever and my nose was off. I did notice strange smell when I went in his room one of the 30 times--but it didn't smell like poo. Unfortunately Ewan did not disclose any dirty diaper incident any of the times I was putting him back in bed.

Visions of SuperNanny were flooding in my head about how you deal with Jack-in-the-Box bed syndrome. Just put them back in bed without engaging in conversation--over and over again. I was having a hard time sleeping because of fever so I let Jon sleep while I took care of our jack-in-the-box rascal. Jon has had to be superdad while I am not able to do as much due to my virus.

I am really hoping this was a fluke night and that we won't be dealing with this for the next several nights. He went to bed too late (30 minutes really makes a difference to him). Tonight we are going to set up a timer on a little globe light in his room. When the light turns on a 7am he will know that it is okay to get out of bed in the morning.

There just isn't a lot of creativity in problem solving when you are sick and it is 5 in the morning! Oh, Lord-give us your wisdom!

Speaking of potty training--in a few months we will be potty training Isaac. He likes to be just like his big brother and is a pro at picking up any bad habit or savvy saying from Ewan. He likes to sit on the potty with his clothes on and say, "I did it, woohoo!" and then run away from the potty. Hmmm...Wonder where he learned that from? This picture is of Isaac copying his big brother who had just gone potty a few minutes before. Strangely, it wasn't long after this picture that Isaac removed the pee shield and hid it so that none of us have been able to find it. He also knows how to remove the pee bucket and take it to mommy's big potty and dump it. (That means we have to be quick about emptying Ewan's bucket or we might turn around and see Isaac stumbling in his cute 20 month old way with a bucket of pee across my bedroom floor!--of course we learned that from experience) He can't quite flush the toilet yet but he knows you are supposed to do something with the flusher. He usually just touches it and says, "fush". Do you think potty training might go a little easier with this one? He already knows half the steps! Who knew there were so many hidden benefits to having kids 14.5 months apart!

Today, I was so proud of Ewan--He woke up from his nap with a dry diaper! He has been potty trained since October but still sleeps with a diaper on. He knows that if he wakes up with a dry diaper he gets 2 pieces of chocolate. I have been wondering if the move to the big boy bed will speed up the process of getting out of sleeptime diapers.

Speaking of the big boy bed--well it is really a crib converted into a toddler bed. We bought a rail that fits under his mattress to keep him from rolling out and he can easily get in and out of bed now. So far, so good. No late night room escaping or bedtime resistance. Talk about a sigh of relief! I am glad we waited until he was almost 3 to make the move. The only downside is that if he wakes up a little early he comes into our room and is ready to get the day started. No more "snooze" button on the monitor. He gets in our bed with his blankie and we try to get him to lay down and snuggle with us but he says, "I just hungry, daddy. I want to eat breffast." (you know, breakfast) So we get up and eat breakfast. If I am lucky I get to grab a few extra minutes of sleep....oh blessed be my husband!

Sometimes the busyness of life makes it hard to stop and enjoy what is going on around me. In the past two weeks we had VBS, a wedding, a childbirth class to teach, a college group at church, two sick kids, and a baby shower for a friend. Those were all the things we could do or had to do--it doesn't include all the things I couldn't participate in.

Right now I am looking forward to our vacation in Canada. The cool breeze, lounging in the hammocks, long walks, fishing.....sigh......Spending a week and a half with family with no cell phones, computers, or job duties. We need the rest and the time to enjoy each other.

This picture was from 2 years ago. I was pregnant with Isaac and Ewan was turning 1. I think both the kids will LOVE being in Canada this year. Ewan will be turning 3 and loves being outside. Isaac will like playing with rocks and dirt and watching the birds. Jon and I will love the cool weather and napping whenever we can. We leave in less than a month...Let the countdown begin.