Sleep troubles, version 3

When Graham was a baby, he woke up at baby intervals but slept through pretty early. (Note that 'sleep through" is defined as 5 hrs by most folks, a horrible fact to learn when you really want 8 hrs of solid sleep.) So I survived the initial weeks and was grateful for the sleeping when it came.

Then when he was 2, I was ready for him to sleep in his own crib, in his own room. The existance of a girlfriend and the possibility of sex highly influenced this. He did not take well to sleeping in his crib every night. After girlfriend and I parted ways, I took him back into my bed and we slept well.

Then he got a bed from a generous family in San Leandro. Very high quality twin mattress set. He slept in his own bed after I lay down next to him 'till he fell asleep... maybe for a few months. Then he came back into my bed full-time.

Luckily, he was a pretty quiet, still sleeper. None of the kicking my sister reported and not a lot of the pinwheeling I'd heard about.

Fast-forward to now. I'm ready to get my freak on. And Son Number One has developed the unfortunate habit of bracing his feet against my back while he sleeps. I inch away, he reseats his feet, with gentle pressure all night. I wake up with backache. Repeat.

So I explain that he is going to sleep in his own bed from now on, period. No discussion. And for 5 nights, I get him into his bed, we read some books, and I sit and read my book while he falls asleep. So far, so good.

But the last two nights (YAWN!) we've had trouble. He tosses and turns, I read and wait, he talks to me, I declare Silence, he signs "I love you" in sign language, I sign "I love you; go to sleep NOW!", he gets up and hugs me, I hug him and tell him I'm outta here in 5 mins whether he's asleep or not. Insanity continues for the next hour. I finally lay down with him and he falls asleep in 5 minutes.

The moral of the story is, just lie down in the first place and get it over with. How can I not remember this? Oy.