A Little Bit of Freedom..woohoo!!!!

FREEDOM is MINE! LOL! You all must think I'm crazy, so I'll explain.

You see...there's this sweet little boy named Micah Monkey, and well...he hasn't been the best sleeper. I wonder if it runs in the family because he's much like his older brother, Caleb. Caleb slept in our bed until he was nearly 5 years old. I know...call me CUH-RAZEE!!!!!!

Well, I guess we didn't learn too well from that experience, because after our trip to VA back at Thanksgiving...well, Micah started sleeping in our bed. Not only was he in our bed at night, but he had to be held for his naps. So, for approximately 3+ hours a day, I was holding the boy for naps (or having him lie beside me in the recliner). Then, when he fell asleep at night, well, I had him for 3+ hours before we moved to our bed. So, 6+ hours of my day have been spent holding a sleeping baby.

Don't get me wrong...I love little boo-boo, but my household cleaning and our homeschool studies were neglected. I mean...how can I get anything done while holding a sleeping baby? Yep -- you guessed it...it didn't get done or BARELY got done.

So, fast forward to last night, and we decided to nip this little habit before it became a repeat of our struggles with Caleb. We moved Micah's crib back into his room (it had been in Caleb's room, and he slept in there for a bit).

At 8pm, we all went into his room for a little bit of quiet play time. We wanted him to know that his room is not a bad place. Then, at 8:15pm, we all said our "good-nights", and we were out of there by 8:19pm.

Well, let the SCREAM-fest begin. The boy has some lungs (hence the SCREAMS in the title of my blog). He cried/screamed for 20 minutes, and I went back in...said "night, night - love you" and laid him back down. Another 30 minutes past, and I did a repeat. Well, by 9:40ish he was OUT!!!! Oh the quiet...it was so nice.

He woke up with a few screams around 10:30ish and 12:45ish. Then, around 1:15ish he was all out screaming again. So, I did a repeat of my tactic "night, night - love you" and got in the bed with Caleb. (Caleb's room is closer, and I didn't want to keep bothering Brian since he has to work). Well, he quit crying after about 40 minutes.

He woke back up around 5am, and I did my gentle tactic again. I had to go right back in this time because it was an "I'm pissed" scream, and I wasn't going to let him get away with that. So, I did a repeat. Then, 10 minutes later he was out.

At 8am, he woke up for the morning. I went in, turned on the light, and gave him lots of hugs and kisses and told him how proud I was that he slept in his bed all night by himself. We played the "YEAH" game, and then we went to see daddy.

So, there you have it...we will repeat again today with naps and again this evening. So, with all of that said (geez...that was a long post), I will now have 6+ hours back to my day that I can focus on cleaning and doing homeschool work. I think Caleb will enjoy it, too, because he will now have a little bit more attention from us and some "Micah free time" as well.

Wish us lots of luck as we continue on this FUN journey. LOL! Hopefully it will be successful, and we will all start having wonderful dreamy sleep! :)
Have any of you had to deal with such bothersome sleep struggles? Share your stories!