When I named this blog, I had no idea how often it would come back up in my life. It seems that part of child raising is continuing to struggle with getting your child enough sleep. Now that we are big enough for a bed, apparently we are also big enough to get out of it and make a ruckus.
Every nap time and every bedtime starts out with getting rocked to music, getting in to bed, snuggling up and looking at the stars on the ceiling. By the time I get down the stairs and turn the monitor on, the chatter has started. Then, I hear the clicking start - which is the turning on and off of the nightlight. I can hear the moving around and the creak of the rocking chair.
After about forty-five minutes of this, I go upstairs and say very firmly (ala Samuel L. Jackson) "It's bedtime! Go to sleep, NOW!" and remove whatever offending stimulus (typically books) that has been dragged into his bed. Somehow, at least so far, within about 3 minutes of this visit, he rolls over and goes to sleep. For that time and that moment - the battle is won. Only to resume again the next afternoon and evening. My hope is that at some point, he will get that he eventually has to go to sleep and start doing it again on his own. The reality is, he may never get to that point and this battle may go on for the next decade or longer.
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