Wait… that was IT??!?
Tad has not been sleeping through the night recently.
It usually starts a couple of hours after bedtime. Who knows if he’s actually gone to sleep and woken up, or if he’s just laid awake all that time. But the Webmaster and I will usually be catching up on our TV or cleaning up when we hear a small, little-boy voice call out. “Hewwo? Hewwo?!? Is annywon dere? I need to go POTTY!”
Yes, I wanted him to learn to talk. Don’t remind me of that right now.
The problem is, sometimes Tad really DOES need to use the potty. At least, he has used it when we’ve opened the door and he comes dashing out. The other times, though… not so much. You can tell when Tad needs to go versus the times he just wants out of his room. When he’s gotta go… he’s gotta go. He’s incredibly focused on his body’s need for relief. When he doesn’t, he sits on his potty and asks for a toy to play with – usually his snowspeeder.
So, after whatever he’s done or tried to do is over, we march him back into his room, tuck him back into bed, and say good night.
Within another hour, he’s at it again. “Hewwo? HEWWO??”
And if we ignore him, the pounding starts. BAM BAM BAM BAM. “MAAAAAAMMMAAAA! DAAAAAADDDY! I NEED TO GO POTTY!”
You see, Tad has a spinning lock on his door on the inside knob. We put it there so he couldn’t break out at night, oh, probably around a year ago. I think it was before he broke his leg – and then, of course, he wasn’t leaving his room at night. But he’s never learned to open it up himself, so it’s effectively kept him in his room.
After several nights of this – and many of interrupted sleep for the Webmaster and myself, because you think this ends when we go to bed? Oh, no. No no no. – I finally said to the Webmaster, “I think we’d better take the lock off his door. I’d rather chase him back into bed than have Ane continually waking up because he’s pounding on his door.”
So, we took the lock off the doorknob. And he went to bed.
And there was nary a peep for the whole night.
???!?!?!? That was IT??!?!?
Now, Tad does have a habit of waking at about 5 am – which no one else in this house needs to do at this point – and then crawling into bed between the Webmaster and myself. I’m always waking up because there are little cold feet coming under the sheets and seeking heat – and they always seem to find me. Not his father, me.
Of course, it’s not too big of a deal at this point, because he promptly falls back asleep. And sometimes, he sleeps so hard that the Webmaster and I have to wake him up in the mornings. The most effective way? Play Star Wars’ Main Title at full volume. It gets the boy awake in record time. Shocking, I know.
And maybe those cold little feet will be a good alarm clock for his Daddy next week when he starts his new job. At minimum, they’ll wake me, then I’ll wake the Webmaster, and then Oedipus will take his father’s warm spot in the bed.
Because I think that’s what he’s after, really.
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