Last night we took the first step on what I suspect may be a long journey: readjusting Jules’ sleeping patterns.
We’ve fallen into just a couple of bad habits over the last six months, probably since he got sick and went off his food. Neither are particularly bad habits, but I suspect they’re still going to be tough ones to break, but worthwhile — for us, and for Jules. The primary one is that we’ve been letting him come and sleep in our bed when he wakes up overnight, usually 3am or so. The second, more subtle (but likely related) is that we’ve been staying in his room and reading to him until he falls asleep.
Last night Dee took point: I read to him for ten minutes, then left while he was still awake. For the next FOREVER he cried, got up, threw himself on the ground, wailed some more — and each time, Tough Mummy picked him up and put him back without a word, Super Nanny style. Each time, he wailed louder but for shorter periods, and each time he stayed closer to his own room; in the end, he would walk to the door, then put himself back to bed when Dee came towards him.
Same thing overnight (Dee again; it’s my turn tonight) — he got up, was put back, fought it for a while, stayed in his own bed. Quite a struggle, especially at 3am (and then again at 5am), but eventually he stayed in bed.
And then when I got up at 7am this morning, I saw this:
