Gloating

It is with much sadness and exhaustion that I report that we are again having night wakings. (You may recall that we had this problem earlier in the year with Tiny.) This time, Buba is the caller. He’s been stalling more at bedtime, and then also waking once or twice a night calling for T or me to come in to see him. It actually started two or three weeks ago, when both kids had fairly nasty colds. Buba was having trouble breathing, and would call us to help provide some relief. I would go in and hold him upright for a few minutes, wipe away whatever poured from his nose, and held him until his junky sounding coughing ceased. He no longer needs this assistance, but is, apparently, quite fond of having visitors in the middle of the night.

But enough, enough already! I need my rest! So I decided last night to tell him that nighttime is for sleeping and that neither T nor I would be coming to see him during the night. I knew we’d have trouble at some point, but was quite impressed at how Buba managed to scream and cry almost continuously from 12:31am-2:26am. And even more impressed at how Tiny did not make one single sound- not one cry, not one cough- during the entire screaming fit. I know it sounds awful, and it was (after one hour, T wanted to go in and stop the madness), but my hope is that the good Dr. Weissbluth is right, and this will be a step towards extinguishing the undesirable night waking behavior.

To further drive home the point of “nighttime is for sleeping”, I praised the heck out of Tiny’s great sleeping. She got stickers. She got a special snack. She got to choose what we had for lunch (Italian wedding soup was her choice). And she got a special surprise- a trip to the Hallmark store to choose a new cuddle blanket to sleep with at nap and nighttime.

Buba was not please with this arrangement. Tiny, of course, loved all the praise and attention. On the way home from the Hallmark store, she enjoyed a bit of gloating while bouncing her new cuddle in her on her knees…

Tiny (to the tune of BINGO): There was a naughty naughty boy and Buba was his name-O!, He don’t get surprise, He don’t get surprise, He don’t get surprise, And Buba was his name-O!; He be sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, Buba was his name-O!, He need sleep, sleep, sleep, He need sleep, sleep, sleep, He need sleep, sleep, sleep, and Buba was his name-O!

“Not nice!” I told her, but secretly, I’m hoping that she’s helping to drive home the message that it pays to be a good sleeper. As soon as we got home, I made up a sticker chart for Buba. If he has three days of being a good sleeper, both at nap and at nighttime (I threw in nap time to help start off successfully, since nap is never a problem), he gets to take a trip back to the Hallmark store to pick out a new cuddle blanket for himself.

Update: I started this post yesterday afternoon, but didn’t have a chance to finish it up until this evening. At this point, Buba has three stickers on his chart. Last night, he fell asleep sometime around 7:45, and I heard not a peep until about 6:15 this morning. Yay! Three sleeps down, and three more to go.