Saturday, October 22, 2016

Update On The Sleeping In This House

Here's the latest update on toddler J. and his sleeping. Or well non-sleeping. And the mickey mouse clubhouse detox. Yeah I totally came up with that on my own.

We have just conquered day number 2 of the detox. Let me tell you it was no easy feat.  Toddler J. Is unbelievable determined that he will get you watch his cartoons when he wants and he will also have a great snack to go with them. Unfortunately for him, I am just as determined and quite stubborn in my decision that he will no longer have this privilege.

So it's been a very rough two days.  The first was catastrophic to say in the least. I actually, and see here I'm being completely honest, gave in for about two cartoons length. Which is 30 minutes. The only reason I did that was because he was hanging on to me screaming and I needed to throw up. Apparently something I ate didn't sit well with my stomach.  So while I threw up, cleaned up, and brushed my teeth he was quietly and very happily watching his shows.

The happily part quickly turned to anger and a screaming fit of the year when I came and quite calmly took away my cellphone. But we survived day one.

Day two was much better. He woke up insisting to watch his show. After maybe 10 minutes of pleading and crying he gave up and played with his cars. Around noon he remembered that he wanted to watch his show but that was quickly resolved by taking him to bed for a nap. And he once more remembered that he still wanted but so far hadn't watched his shows at dinner time. Which thank God was also easily derailed from becoming another fight of the wills because his dad rang the doorbell getting the boys all excited that he had come home from work.

So day two ended really well. I made sure to keep him constantly occupied and happy with other things. I have a notebook full of scribbles to show for the two hours that we spent just drawing together.

Now on to the sleeping. The first night went ok until about 3a.m. that was when little M. (previously known as baby VP) woke up screaming and crying. Which resulted in toddler J. waking up as well. Little M. went back to sleep sometime around 4 a.m. for about 30 minutes but toddler J. only managed to fall back asleep around 6:30a.m. and then only for a short time.

Needless to say everyone had a great nap during the later that day.

I don't think that the staying awake the first night had anything to do with being over stimulated. I'm positive though it had everything to do with little M. screaming his lungs out.

Night number two went much better. Little M. woke up again crying for his bottle of milk which resulted in waking up toddler J. He had been sleeping quite peacefully up to that point. Unfortunately it seems little M. also had an upset stomach because not long after drinking his milk he threw it up. I was brave and did clean up duty. Toddler J.  meanwhile ended up having a pee-pee accident. Not fun having to rummage for clean clothes at 2 a.m.

But I took care of that an about an hour later he went back to sleep. Calmly. No crying. No trying to get out of bed. No screaming because he doesn't want to sleep. A definite WIN in my book.

So even though we still stayed up at least 2 hours both nights it wasn't as bad as before. Really it wasn't. And I was very happy to see him do something other than watch mickey mouse clubhouse during the day.

Maybe later in when he is older he will be allowed 30 minutes here and there of cartoons but that's a HUGE MAYBE. I'm really leaning towards a NO on that. I think there are so many great things children can do to occupy their time that cartoons should really be a last resort.

To conclude this long and not so exciting update...we're on doing good so far. The detox is going great. Much better than I expected. And the sleeping is starting to improve.

Dare I say I have hopes of actually getting to sleep through the night before the year is over?! 

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