Sleep is finally winning

So this past weekend we moved Aiden's room around and showed him that there are in fact no goats in there and he seemed quite pleased, he even started going in there by himself to get his own toys and he has asked me a few times if we can go play in there. It's a great achievement even if sounds silly.

On Sunday night we tried the first time getting him to sleep in there, he was hesitant but I assured him I would lay with him until he fell asleep, it took an hour but he fell alseep and I got into my bed child free for the first time in 3 months. He woke up at 2am and snuck into our bed but it was an improvement.

Last night when bed time was announced he ran to our bed and climbed in and we were adamant that he must get into his bed because big boys sleep in their own beds. Brad layed with him for about 10 minutes and then he fell asleep on his own, instead of creeping into our beds at 2am we went and layed with him until he fell asleep again and he slept in his bed till morning. Break through!

He was so proud this morning and proclaimed he was a big boy because he slept in his own bed and followed by giving me his dummy and saying it was for babies.

I am so proud of my monkey and even though he still woke up during the night, sleep is already so much better without a child between us.

We still have a way to go but we winning right now at this sleep thing, this weekend we will paint his room bright colours and put some pictures on his wall so he feels even more safe and happy in there.

This proves that with a little love and attention, anything is possible and today I am winning as a mother and for the first time feel like I am getting something right.

Here's to sleep, my little boy becoming a big boy and to being a better mother.

Sleeping problems still winning

Fair enough Aiden has never been a good sleeper, EVER, and yes I should stop complaining about it because everyone is bored of hearing it but I don't really care, it's whats happening in my life and that's why I am here.

Things went from bad to worse when we moved into our new flat.

Look we didn't move into an amazingly big, spacious and glamorous flat. It is small and Aiden's room is the size of my bathroom at my parents house but it's a room and I have tried my hardest to recreate his old bedroom so he feels comfortable, so far it hasn't worked.

He is scared of a goat that apparently lives in there, I have no idea what he is talking about and not sure if he is talking about a goat or some how picked up on the theory of ghosts, it could be either but this weekend it is our mission to get him to love his room.

Against the rules of renting we are painting his room, yellow and blue, screw the rules and we going to get him to help. We are going to rearrange his room, basically flip the bed and moves his toys to the opposite side (all we can do in the space) and put in his own tv so he can watch his movies in bed.

We hoping that having him help us create a new space for him to be in he will fall in love with it and not want to sleep in our bed anymore and hopefully then we will all get some actual sleep.

Look it's just a theory and I haven't read it in a parenting book or been advised of this by some mother scientist, it's all I could come up with and I will try anything at this point.

Sleep deprivation is a form of torture if you didn't know.

Sleeping woes

It's 10:40am and I am struggling to keep my eyes open at my desk at work even after 5 espressos.

My child has never been a good sleep, he has never slept through the night, we on 2 years and 9 months of not sleeping, for the most part my body is used to it and I can handle it without loosing my cool (most of the time)

I think the one thing that has saved me is the fact that although Aiden wakes 2-3 times a night, he always happily went to bed at 7:30pm, no fuss, no crying and in his own bed and when he woke in the night he stayed in his bed. Meaning I could get to bed by 8:30pm and have at least 5 hours solid sleep before the rounds of waking start.

That has now shifted and I am not coping and I am not keeping my cool.

Since we moved to the new house he hates his room, he won't even go in there to fetch a toy he wants. He no longer wants to go to bed at 7:30pm he wants to watch a movie or get in bed with me and fall asleep. He screams, he goes out of his room and follows me around and it's killing me.

For the first 2 weeks we have been allowing him to fall asleep with me at 9pm and then we move him to his bed and then when he strolls in at 2am we have been putting him in bed with us. Now I know I don't want to start a bad habit so last night I decided to stand my ground and we fought for 2 hours we fought, going back and forth to his room, him screaming and crying, me eventually screaming and smacking at every count of 3, by 10:30pm he won, I couldn't do the broken hearted cries any more, I couldn't fight or get up to take him to his room one more time, what the neighbours think is any ones guess.

So he slept between us, moaning in my ear all night, kicking my back and taking up all the space and asking for juice every hour.

As a result pure exhaustion and lack of concentration.

And I still have to do it all over again tonight.

Any advice is welcome.