Stream of Consciousness: Bedtime Scare Tactics {week 68} #SOC #freewriting #blogging

My child hates sleep. If you’ve read this blog, you have known this since day 1 when I started writing about him.

Hates. Sleep.

Last night, the husband tried to help at bedtime, but the boy wasn’t having any of it. He wanted only mommy. So my husband told him that if he didn’t want to cooperate, then “mean mommy with the button eyes” was going to make an appearance. He went as far as telling him that mean mommy was under our bed.

I then had a lot of explaining to do.

Tonight we went a different route. There was no mean mommy, but I did tell him that if he wakes me tonight, the cat would be sleeping in his room. He is terrified of the cat in his room after the lights are out. (I think this stems from one time when she was sleeping in his closet, and I didn’t realize it until much later. She started moving around and scared him.)

This child has been out of bed at least 4 times tonight, but he hasn’t woken me up since I haven’t been to bed yet. Last night he was up at 2 a.m. yelling he needed to go to the bathroom….he was in the hallway. Then he climbed into our bed at 6:40. The night before it was 5:30 and 6:30. He’s woken me every night for about the past two weeks – sometimes multiple times. He never, ever wants daddy. Only mommy.

And this mom is exhausted. I can’t grow a human and care for a non-sleeping human on so little sleep. At least I can’t do it well.

It has been suggested that maybe the boy is ready to drop his nap. I would have agreed had he not fallen asleep at a football game yesterday…two feet away from the marching band. And he fell asleep in my lap this afternoon when we were on our back porch.

Something has to give. Here’s to restful sleep soon, maybe with the help of my cat.