Just kidding

In my previous post I said that Dylan sleeps through the night, but that he wakes up early. Scratch that...I was lying! We have been struggling with his sleep habits since he was born, but they have gotten really bad since we moved to Virginia Beach. When I last posted, he was on a several day streak of actually sleeping through the night. It ended as abruptly as it began.

I think, on average, Dylan gets about 7, maybe 8 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. Ummm, 3 year olds are supposed to get at least 10. He will typically go to bed just fine, but it's all downhill from there. He is usually up 2-3 times a night and then up for the day no later than 5:30am. Mike and I got so tired of getting up with him at 5:30, that we finally taught him how to use the remote to turn on the tv. Before we go to bed at night, we just set the cable box to Nick Jr so all Dylan has to do is hit the Power button. I also put a cup of his juice in the refrigerator. He now knows to just chill on the couch when he first gets up. It allows us about 45 minutes of extra sleep time in the morning. Although, I can't really sleep because it makes me all anxious to know that my 3 1/2 year old is up roaming freely around the house. It makes me especially anxious now that he is potty trained and immediately takes off his pull-ups when he wakes up.

As a result of us allowing him the freedom to turn on the tv and get his juice in the mornings, he no longer stays in his room or comes to us when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Every night when he gets up at 12, 2, 3:30 or whatever times it is he decides it's time to be up for the day and goes about his morning routine...removing pull-up and all. I know he's up because I can hear his door fly open and then he starts flipping on all the lights downstairs. Now, I get the occasional bout of insomnia, but something tells me this is not typical 3 year old behavior. Last night, for instance, I heard Dylan go out of his room, saw the lights flip on. I waited about 5 minutes before going downstairs to walk him back to his room. Before I could make it to the living room, he had removed his pull-up, drank his cup of juice and was singing along to Wow Wow Wubzy. I turned off the tube and marched his little hiney back to his room (this has been going on for so long that I am usually furious during our interaction...I don't do well with no sleep). I went to search for a new Pull-Up (he is not night potty trained yet and is no where close to being ready for that), but to my dismay there were none in the house. So, at 12am, I throw a hospital pad (one of those water resistant ones) on his bed, put some undies on him and tell him to come get me if he needs to pee. Fast forward to 2am and I'm rudely awakened by Dylan sobbing and shouting that he peed in his bed and on the floor. I bolt out of bed and find that, sure enough, he started peeing in his bed (probably while sleeping), realized what he was doing and hopped out of bed only to continue peeing on his carpet. AWESOME! Just what I want to deal with at 2am. *Reminder* I have an 8 week old baby! I pull Dylan to the bathroom, wipe down his legs and bottom with a wet rag (no way am I giving him a bath while half asleep), throw on a new pair of undies, fold the hospital in half and throw him back in his bed. All the while, praying in my head that he doesn't pee again. By the time I finally got back in bed, oh, around 3am, Lena started her nightly fussing routine and I got to listen to her fuss and grunt and wiggle until 5:30am when Dylan woke up for the day.

That's just a sampling of what my nights have been like...for the past FOUR months! FOUR MONTHS people! Needless to say, I am exhausted and hanging on by a thread. Gonna get the pediatrician to refer us for a sleep study. Someone needs to fix this for me or I just might die of sleep deprivation. Gram and Pa...I hope you're ready for us at the end of June...I'll probably be passed out in your guest room for two weeks.