Sleeping Is My Favorite

 

A rare sighting of the Tot sleeping past 7:30 a.m. On a weekday, of course.

You can barely see his little elephant cuddled on the other side of him.

Guy didn't sleep through the night consistently until he was about 9 months old. It was a long, long 9 months. Then, once he did start sleeping through the night, going to bed was still a nightmare. Every night was the same routine: we would read a book, he would lie sweetly on my shoulder as I sang him "Yesterday"  by the Beatles and "Castle on a Cloud" from Les Miserables, he would whisper and smile at me as I put him in his crib... And then he screamed bloody murder the moment I left the room. 

At around 16 months, Greg finally tried something new and gave Guy his musical elephant as he put him down in the crib. He immediately snuggled with it and was happy. Turns out, he just felt lonely. So now he sleeps with his lovey, and we leave his door open and make plenty of noise while he goes to sleep. Some nights we hear him playing for almost half an hour in his bed, and some nights he goes immediately to sleep. The magic is that he does it on his own, and finally has almost a cheery attitude when it's time to go in the crib. 

Even nicer is the fact that he will now often wake up at 6:00 a.m., but after muttering for a while in his crib, will go back to sleep, or play quietly in his crib until 6:45 or so. After spending a year with him going to sleep crying and waking up crying, the simple joy of a happy child in the morning has been enough to fuel me to smile before I've even had my coffee in the morning.