It's like having a newborn again

Ethan doesn't sleep all that well when he's stressed. And unfortunately for Braden and I, he has been really, really stressed with going to a new school.

He's always been our one that doesn't sleep all that well. But for the past few months, he's rarely gotten up in the middle of the night and I was so shocked when he completely slept through Blythe's stomach bug and the 3 bed sheet changes that went with it.

So last Monday he got up once during the night. Came into our room and wanted in bed. Not sure why he asks that since we NEVER let him in the bed. Anyway, took him back to his room and he was fine. Tuesday night same thing. Wednesday night same thing. GET.TING.OLD.

Thursday night he got up twice. The second time though he had a bloody nose and it was all over him and his sheets. So Braden and I were both up, cleaning up Ethan and changing his sheets (have I mentioned how much I LOVE middle of the night laundry loads???). Anyway, you should have seen the kid by Friday afternoon. The bags under his eyes were PURPLE. How could he possibly not sleep through the night on Friday night?

7 times. That's how many times he was up Friday night. He basically didn't sleep from 10:30 until 2am (and therefore nor did we). I mean, it was just getting ridiculous. And to top that off, no nap on Saturday. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how he was awake and functioning by Saturday evening.

So Saturday he didn't even have school, so there was less stress. Maybe that night would be better. After his 3rd time waking that night (when we woke to the sound of Ethan beating on Brynn's door), he got thrown back in his room and we locked the door (several months ago we turned his doorknob around when we were having trouble with naptime...because we are geniuses). There he was left to cry himself back to sleep and not bother us.

I really don't want to lock him in his room every night or discourage him from coming to get us if he has a problem, so that's not really a long term solution. Long term solutions are so much harder. But I think it had an impact, and then as another attempt to keep him in his room the whole night I promised him a "special treat" if he stays in his room and doesn't come in ours. For the WHOLE night.

Amazingly we got a whole night of sleep last night. At about 7:15 I found him in the bathroom trying to put his pants back on after going potty. So he hadn't even tried to wake me to announce to me his plans to go potty. Nice. He asked about his special treat. It had to be something of significance to encourage him to keep staying in his room. So he had ice cream. With sprinkles. For breakfast.

You're welcome 3's room teacher at day care.