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Sleep Training Continues

So far, the roommate swap is working well for Ane and Rerun.  Rerun is used to a nightlight and the door open, while Ane would rather have total darkness, but we’ve compromised.  They have a nightlight with the door closed.

Tad and Thumper, on the other hand….

Tad, who wants light and power, MUST have a nightlight and the door open (and the hall light on) in order to stay in bed and stay asleep.  Thumper, who has been Ane’s roommate, is used to total darkness.  The nightlight isn’t bothering him, but he wants the door shut.

This resulted in a comedy routine on night #2 of them sharing a room.  I was sitting on guard, so Thumper knew he couldn’t leave.  He would shut the door.  Tad would immediately get up to open it.  Thumper got back up to shut it.  Tad would open it again.  And on and on it went.

FINALLY, we came up with a solution.

The door is shut until Thumper falls asleep (and we try to put him down earlier than Tad), and Tad has both the nightlight on, and a flashlight in hand.  When Thumper is asleep, he is allowed to open the door.

This works for the going-to-sleep part, but Thumper is still waking at unearthly early hours.  Sunday morning, he woke up at 4:20 am and came into our room.  He’s looking to play with an iPad.  Of course, I’m wakened from a dead sleep to light from the door opening and toddler footsteps.  Thumper climbed into bed with us and we shut our bedroom door.  He actually fell back asleep – something he had not done yet – and we had to wake him for church.

Of course, then he refused to nap AT ALL (and discovered that there are toys in the bedroom), which resulted in total exhaustion at dinnertime.  He refused cheese pizza, which shows you how off the rails he was.  We were watching the football game at Grandma and Gichan’s house, and Thumper took a cat nap in Auntie’s arms instead of eating dinner.

Crashing on Auntie

We’re still working the kinks out of this.  And trying to remember if the old crib is still in the shed or not.  I’d rather not resort to setting it up (if it’s still there), but….

One Response to “Sleep Training Continues”

  1. linda
    September 21st, 2015 06:30
    1

    Phew! I think I am tired enough to go crawl into bed again and catch 40 winks just for you!
    Big hugs!