Heeeeeeere's Johnny!

I'm starting to give up on the 8:30, no arguments, bedtime, and am beginning to settle on 9 or 9:30. Why? Last night, when we put him down at 8:30, read to him, did the routine, and left, Jack cried for about 5-10 minutes, and then proceeded to walk around his room, getting into Lord Knows What. I could hear his little footsteps going back and forth, back and forth, and with the door closed we really had no clue what he was up to.

Tonight? Well, after last night, and taking into consideration his nap which lasted until around 5pm, I decided to move bedtime to 9. When 9 o'clock rolled around, 9 became 9:30 and we finally went back to bed. Despite the new sheets that Jack picked out, he still wanted to sleep on the floor - fine, my strange little man - and I read him his bedtime reading selections - Poky Little Puppy, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. I then talked to him for a minute or two, and was out. He didn't cry. He didn't move. He just went to sleep.

I think Jack's just a lot like me. I'm a night owl. I have a hard time going to sleep at a decent hour, even when I know I will be waking up early the next day. When do I type these blog entries? Most are in the 10pm-midnight timeslot. I'm just wired that way. I guess Jack's wired that way too.

Come to find out, through a conversation with my Dad the other day, that I've always been a night person. My Dad mentioned the other day about reading the blog entries about Jack's bedtime, and the conversation segues to reveal that - at four years old - my parents apparently gave up fighting my bedtime and just let me stay up so I could watch Johnny Carson. Really. Apparently they would retrieve me around midnight, where I was asleep on the couch, and take me to bed.

We had yet another ultrasound yesterday, and everything looks good. Still a boy, of course, and he looks healthy. He's bigger than Jack was at this point, and I'm pretty sure he will be bigger at birth than Jack was.

Everyone is thinking that I will "go" early with this one. With Jack, I was induced a week after the due date. I never had a contraction; heck, I never even had Braxton-Hicks. I know a lot of moms out there will think I'm loca, but I would love to be induced again. I'm the kind of girl that prefers what can be planned for, and inductions just fit perfectly with my personality. I loved that I could go to the hospital and would labor the whole time there. Once the pain got to be too much - epidural please - and I got it. This was especially good as my epidural didn't take the first time (slightly curved spine) and I had to have that epidural redone. I labored for about 8 hours, from the time they started the pitocin drip until Jack's arrival. I think I pushed for about 30-45 minutes - not too bad at all, really.

Jack's labor and delivery was about as good as it can get. So I wonder how this labor will go. I wonder a lot of things about this second child, aside from his birth - what will he look like? In what ways will he and Jack be similar, and how will they differ? I'm curious to watch these two develop a bond as brothers. I know there will be fights, but I also know that they'll play together and watch out for each other too. There's a lot to look forward to with this new addition to our little family.

Cue the Hallelujah Chorus, Please

He's asleep!!!!! IN HIS BED!!!!!

He has not chosen to sleep in his bed in weeks. HALLELUJAH!

Getting the man to sleep - Night Two

Last night went A LOT better than the night before. Around 8:45pm, Jack and I went down to his bedroom. Jack picked out three books - Corduroy Goes to School, Papa Please Get the Moon for Me, and his favorite, the Poky Little Puppy (which he asks for by saying "Woof").

After Jack got settled down with his blue pants, blanket and truck, we got down to reading. After PLP was read, I went over to him, told him "Mama and Daddy and Annie love you", gave him a big hug, and left.

He only cried for 5-10 minutes, and then it got really quiet in there. After a while I could here footsteps, so I said through the door "Jack, you need to lay down". Anyway, it was way too quiet in there (last night he fell asleep still protesting).

I slowly and silently opened the door, expecting to get slammed by an upset toddler who realized that maybe, just maybe, Mama had come to "save" him. Instead, nothing. I saw him, back turned to me, sitting up and staring at his Simba (from Lion King); he then lay down - on the floor - on his pillow. I closed the door.

About fifteen minutes later, I again, slowly and silently, opened the door. His back was turned to me, and he was playing with his little truck. Little stinker. This was about 9:30pm. I closed the door.

When I check in on him as it approached 10:00pm, he was sound asleep.

I think this is working.

The little man sleeps....

Jack is finally asleep. I think he drifted off around 10:45, after two hours of stalling and fighting.

Over the past few weeks Jack, our former champion little sleeper, has changed dramatically. For one, with the toddler bed upgrade, Jack got used to Mama or Daddy (mainly me) putting him to bed, and sitting/laying beside his bed until he was out. This process used to only take maybe half an hour.

Starting about 3 or 4 weeks ago he refused to sleep in his bed, and now will only sleep on the floor. With this, he has started to pull out every stall tactic known to man to prevent going to bed. One more book. Oh, let me play with this truck just a little. On and on and on.

I had decided a week or so ago that crying it out would have to be our option (it worked when Jack was a baby in his crib). I don't know that Addam was entirely on board with this idea until last night, when it took Addam about an hour and a half to put Jack to bed. Trucks were confiscated - it was not a pretty sight.

Tonight I stayed in there with him, and tried out the "sit down a little further away" plan that I saw on one of the nanny shows - we did this for about an hour and a half. Addam eventually joined the frustration, which eventually led to us - finally - evacuating his room, closing the door and letting Jack deal. After about 30 minutes, he finally fell asleep on his pillow. In the floor, but asleep. Somewhere around 10:45 at night.

I know a lot of moms that oppose "crying it out", but he's very stubborn and there was no other way. We've reasoned with him; tried rewarding/taking away. There was no other way. If someone has a better solution, I'm all ears.

This needs to work out with his bedtime, and soon. I don't like the late bedtime for him - it's not healthy - and he needs to know how to put himself to sleep without Mama. What will I do if we have two kids fighting bedtime battles? When will I work? When will I sleep?

Things

1. For the past two weeks, Jack refuses to sleep in his bed. He'd rather sleep in the floor beside his bed. It started the night it stormed and hailed fairly bad. He also napped in the floor yesterday. I really hope this is a phase.
2. I'm going to a baby shower Sunday, and I'm really looking forward to seeing some old friends there. Can't reveal the baby gift - she reads the blog, at least sometimes - but it's baby boy stuff, and very cute.
3. StatCounter is addictive. I've discovered that my Photo Friday participation results in visits from all around the world. Someone fairly local found me via their Yahoo email - I'm wildly curious about that - and two visitors have come via searches for other things - love that someone found me through a Mark Slaughter search and found my first meme!
4. Bridgermama started a great discussion on the topic of playgroups. Apparently a lot of women have had terrible experiences with playgroups; I've had the reverse. It's interesting reading. I'd recommend finding a playgroup to anyone, but it's obviously not for everyone, and every playgroup is different. Our playgroup is just as much for the moms as for the kids - we meet weekly for playtime, at a local place, local parks, a mom's home, etc...but we also maintain a messageboard and meet monthly for a Mom's Night Out. Jack and I did not know any other moms/kids before joining the playgroup - I'm the first of my friends to have any children, and Jack has no relatives close in age. I'm really glad that we joined the playgroup - it's good to be able to chat about "Mom Stuff" to other moms. Plus, I think moms need other moms to know we're not all going insane!
5. Dr. Phil is on right now in the background. I do not watch Dr. Phil, I swear (it's stormy today and I'm keeping an eye on the weather), but these guys are trying to say that a man's fatherly responsibilities end if he just chooses not to be a dad. Wow, what an upstanding and responsible guy (in case sarcasm doesn't translate well into blog, that's sarcasm).