Fear of Sleep

I came down to the kitchen this morning, groggy, ready for a cup of coffee, needing a little wake up time. Surprise! We never cleaned the kitchen last night. Oh.

Now, it's 1:30 and the lunch dishes are piled on top of the supper dishes.

Not to mention the other chores, and Fredrik's been wearing the same socks for two days (gasp!).

I keep filling my sketchbook with ideas...but they don't get started.

It is the fear of sleep.

I finally diagnosed it.

Nothing has been working to get that 23 month old to sleep (except holding him in the sling that had been retired to a drawer a good 10 months ago).

We've tried the cry-it-out which was more of a yell-it-out, he just yelled, "mama, daddy, eggs, outside, thomas..." until he was hoarse.

We've tried soothing music, putting the lights down, calming baths, negotiations, snuggly toys, switching to a toddler bed (QUICKLY BACK TO THE CRIB!), our bed, and skipping the nap.

He looks so bedraggled.

So does our house.

Then, today we visited the Monroe Family Playroom at the Monroe School-which was awesome by the way, and free, and included 45 minutes of parent/child yoga-and during the free play portion of the morning I picked up a copy of "What to Expect...the Toddler Years (or something close)" and they mentioned that some sensitive kids will develop a fear of sleep. The cry(yell)-it-out method usually just makes it worse.

I think it fits.

He just wants to be up, to play, to read, to learn, to talk.

So, they suggested laying with your toddler until he falls asleep so we tried that today. He, in his exhaustion, fell asleep almost immediately on my shoulder in his room. I waited a good 10 minutes to transfer him, then covered him up (still sleeping at this point), covered him up so he felt secure and rested my hand a bit longer.

Soon, he opened his eyes and said,

"Screwdriver."

Seriously!

And he's been in his crib a good 20 minutes now listening to guitar music and talking about Thomas.

He's so tired.

The house is so dirty.

Well, up I go to try again.