Breaking Bad Sleep Routine

I'm so TIRED!!! I wish I could say it was just today, buy it's been a couple of months now. I don't know WHEN it started but I know WHY it started. Ethan has been coming into our bedroom in the middle of the night EVERY NIGHT for months now. At first, it was just easier to pull him into our bed with us, but now he is doing it ALL THE TIME....and the only one getting a good night sleep is Ethan!

So, today as I wait in the town 30 minutes from home while Ethan is here for his Easter Seals Preschool program....I decided to borrow my mom's laptop & write at Barnes & Noble....where they serve Starbucks!!! And the Starbucks gal must have seen how tired I was when she "recommended" an extra shot of expresso in my latte......Thank you Starbucks Angel!

Well, this past weekend, we decided to try & break this habit. We have tried different things to see if he actually prefers our bed to his.....but it seems he just wants to be with us....regardless of the actual bed. At midnight last night, Ethan came to our door & asked, "Daddy, will you snuggle me in your chair?" LOL....ok....it's not his bed.

So, we told him that if he stayed in his bed & his room all night long, he would get 5 SKITTLES in the morning. We even laid them out the night before....he was so excited. Skittles are our currency in our house. If Ethan uses his words instead of throwing a fit, we reward him with ONE Skittle. If he does something without complaining, he gets a Skittle. We haven't had to use Skittles in awhile, but recently we have started this system again due to some undesirable behavior on his part....but that's for another day.

As we were putting Ethan to bed, he became to "recite" the new rule out loud...."If I stay in my bed all night long, I get 5 Skittles when it is day." My husband then brought in an alarm clock......BRILLIANT!!! He told Ethan that when the alarm goes off, it would be day & he could get out of bed. LOVE IT!!!!

Everything worked pretty well. Ethan got up a few times before Corey & I actually went to be ourselves, so putting him back in his bed wasn't too bad. Most of the time, Ethan would ask us to lay with him but then fall immediately back to sleep.  In fact, I think he only woke up that one time to ask Daddy to snuggle. I think that is pretty good for our first night of trying.

However, Ethan was sooooo excited for those 5 Skittles that he woke up at 5:30am....and asking for them. I reminded him that his alarm hadn't gone off yet, but it didn't matter.....he was awake for the day.....and so was I.

Ironically, I was watching the show Up All Night on Hulu before I went to bed last night, and the couple on the show was having the same issue! Something they tried on there was putting something in the kiddo's bed that had Mommy & Daddy's scent on them. And since Ethan is very sensory driven, I figured that this would be a good idea! So tonight, Ethan's stuffed Cookie Monster & Elmo will be sporting a shirt from Corey & a shirt from me....just have to decide who each of us should be! HA!

So, we will see how this goes. I really want Ethan to have a good night of sleep, but Mommy & Daddy need sleep too! I will keep you all posted on how this goes....Skittles, alarm clock, scent covered stuffed animals & all. But you tell me.....Do I really look that tired???? Wait.....don't answer that. :0)