Again, sorry. I know I haven't updated the blog in months. I'm going to attempt to catch up on our lives on here and back date everything to as close to real time as possible.
One reason for the blogging hiatus is the 6 weeks of sleep hell we went through. We had some major major issues with Lucas, causing Brandon and I to just about lose it. The span of stress that it brought to people reached out to grandparents, friends, even the dog.
Lucas traditionally has been a pretty consistent 8p-8a sleeper. Too good to be true, I should have known it. He transitioned to a big boy bed beautifully. Brandon left for a conference in London and my mom and dad came to stay with us while he was gone. It was then that it all went south. We're talking the next world war when it came to bed time and nap time. Lucas would kick and scream and refuse to put his pajamas on. After a pretty impressive wrestling match (who knew a 2 year old could be so strong) we would try everything to get him into bed. We read countless articles online about sleep troubles and tried all kinds of things to get back to a land of peace and tranquility. My stubborn little one wasn't having it. Let's just say he went as far as taking his pajamas and underwear off and peeing on the floor and the door because we wouldn't let him out of his room. Like a dog. He peed everywhere. I was standing on the other side of the door crying and I hear him calm down all of a sudden and say "mommy?" with a total tone of guilt in his voice. From the other side of the door I said "yes Lucas? Are you ready to calm down?" thinking we had won this battle. Then I hear him say sheepishly, "I pee peed." I opened the door to see my naked child standing there looking at me knowing he did something wrong and he then proceeded to point out that he peed on the floor, the door frame, and the door. I took a long deep breath, said a quick prayer, and asked him why he did it. He responded, "I was angry."
Time out.
He is 2. And he just verbalized the reason why he peed on the floor. It was out of anger. Oh help me Lord.
Anyway, weeks (yes weeks) went by of bedtime battles and we finally got to a better place. He's still not like he used to be, but we aren't on the verge of insanity anymore, which is a win. Sometimes he gets out of his bed and comes downstairs into our room in the middle of the night and Brandon will bring him back upstairs. And he now wakes up pretty consistently before 6:30, which really stinks. But we're not fighting anymore.
This too shall pass, right?
And just because I could, I took some snap shots from our video monitor. Oh, the things we will do.
First up: Nana sneaking out of his room verrrrry carefully after he fell asleep with her laying with him:
Next up: Poppy crashed in bed with him (yes Lucas is laying the complete opposite way):
Next: Daddy's turn:
One of my favorite pictures...Daddy and Lucas saying prayers. Because y'all, we prayed a lot during this time.
So what finally worked, you asked? A sticker chart. A stinking simple construction paper sticker chart. Each morning if Lucas had a good night and didn't fight us, he got a sticker. After filling a row up with stickers, we did something special. Mainly the trampoline place. The amount of thanks and praise that is due to all of the people who walked through this with us is immeasurable. We couldn't have done it alone. It takes a village, amen?
HALLELUJAH!
