March 15, 2009
Bedtime for Bonzo? Yeah, Right…
When it comes to bedtime, Dawson is known to put up a good fight. He’ll think of any excuse in the book. He’s thirsty, he doesn’t feel good (so Mom should hold him on the couch while watching Spongebob — that will cure his illness, he says) or there are monsters in the closet.
It wasn’t always so difficult to get him to sleep. When he was an infant he slept fairly well. Toddlerhood approached and things were good, that is until I suffered a back injury and couldn’t lift him into his crib (which was only a problem when my husband worked second shift).
That’s when we became a co-sleeping family. For the last three years, Dawson has slept in bed with me and my husband. I know what you’re thinking, but before you judge me, please know that once I was back to my old self I tried to get him back into the routine of sleeping in his own bed. He cried so hard he threw up, and I felt like a terrible mom because of it. Crying it out seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.
So, you would think that a child who sleeps in the same bed with his parents would have no trouble going to bed. Not my son. He’ll fight bedtime tooth and nail. I’ve actually had to bribe him with promises of donuts for breakfast. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, I feel like I’m trying to wrangle a chimpanzee.
Just last night Dawson told me he couldn’t go to bed because a “very scary grasshopper will sneak through the window and bite me on the ear!” I’m always amazed with his imagination. These excuses are getting more incredible each time.
I’m sure my child will eventually sleep in his own bed. Hopefully, it will happen by the time his little brother or sister is born. I do not want another little person sleeping in our bed — especially because our dog sleeps there with us, too. I know. We don’t set boundaries. We’re working on it. He can’t sleep with us forever. Right?
———-
This post was inspired by the Parent Bloggers Network as part of their blog blast with Sylvania PalPODzzz – Are You Afraid of the Dark? You can learn more about the Sylvania PalPodzzz by visiting their online store, or check out what Dawson thought of the portable rocket ship nightlight we had the chance to review.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
TrackBack URI
March 16th, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Headless Mom Says:
Oh! I am so with you. Just last night the 7yo joined me-again!
They’ve been ok for a while but bedtime has been a thorn in my side for a very long time. I’m sorry I have no advice. It’s just recently that I’ve been able to stop the 2 hour, laying in bed with them until they fall asleep thing. Now I just have random night wanderers.