scratch the "healthy sleep habits", replace with spanking

as it turns out the "healthy sleep habits" was a bust. at least as it pertained to luke. olivia seems to be doing great on it and, in fact, she slept from 8:30p to 5:10am this morning. but with luke, not so much. it was more of a game for him and with his endless supply of energy and persistence, we were just not going to win. so, we went back to our original plan. get out of bed and you get a spanking. the only difference is that we no longer threaten it, we just do it. the first night it took three spankings in a row for him to know we meant business and things were a changin'. the second night was about the same and then the third night on he has been sleeping all night long! he wakes up about 7:30a and just calls for me from his bed. and when i go in to get him he is in a great, happy mood and is usually singing or playing or has something silly to tell me. this morning he told me to "not go to work with daddy. stay home with lukey forever and ever and ever." we are also putting him to bed earlier (7:00p) and that seems to be helping too.

getting a little sleep at night really changes your entire outlook on the world. i am still waiting on olivia to wake up (it's 8:24a!) but when she does i think i will take the kids to see santa.

i'm exhausted

I started reading this book a few nights ago and realized that we have totally messed up with Luke. The kid just hates to sleep. I am finding myself getting up several times a night to deal with Luke not Olivia. Something is wrong with that.

So, two nights ago we implemented the "silent return to bed" technique. The first night was a fluke since he actually stayed in his bed all night. So last night was the first real night of the new rules. And also by some fluke Olivia decided she wanted to eat 4 times last night instead of the usual one. So starting at about 3am Luke began the nightly ritual of trying/bargaining/sneaking/scheming his way into our bed. After about 25 "silent returns to bed" he finally just got back in himself and went to sleep without a peep. I was up several more times with Olivia, which is why I am exhausted, but I am so pleased with how well this method worked with Luke. They say night two is the worst, so I am dreading that, but by night three it's supposed to be significantly better.

It was pretty difficult trying to stay "mechanical" and not smile or make eye contact. Especially when he was grabbing both of my cheeks in his hands and trying to turn my face to look at him. He would say "big smiles, mama" and "please talk to me, mama". I realized that all of this getting out of bed business is his way of getting more attention from us. I am going to try to devote more time to just do some Lukey and Mommy things during the day when sister is napping and also spend more one on one time after dinner.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have been "sleep training" sister for the last week or so and she is doing awesome, well except for last night. She is getting pretty good at self-soothing when we first put her in her bed for the night and is "protest crying" less and less. I have no idea what happened last night. :)

you have got to be kidding me

Luke woke up at 3:30am and did not go back to sleep. He cried and tried negotiating and everything else he could think of to convince me to let him come out of his room and "wake up". I put him down for his nap at 10:45am and he went down suprisingly easy. He did cry for about 10 minutes but then was quiet, so either he is asleep or he learned how to escape out his window. :)

He is still sleeping...thank goodness. I think we need to go ahead and convert his room into a "big boy room" and make a big deal of it since we haven't been able to yet. I took the toddler rail off of his crib (that he have converted to a toddler bed) and he seemed to like that better. It think it's easier for him to get in and out of and makes him feel less trapped.

I'm tired.

sleep status

Olivia has been going through a growth spurt the last few days so she has been wanting to nurse every hour and a half to two hours. Sometimes she would finish a feed and want to eat 15 minutes later! It has been exhausting to say the least, but I keep reminding myself that things will get better and easier and this will not go on forever.

So, not to jinx us, but I think the growth spurt is over (shhhh...don't say that very loud). Olivia slept from 10:30pm to 3:30am, nursed for 20 minutes and was back down until about 6:45am!! Heaven, I tell ya! I could certainly be okay with this schedule if she decides to keep it up. The night before last was a beating and I felt like a zombie all day. This morning I feel refreshed and energized!

Yay Olivia!!