Sleep Intervention

We are staging a sleep intervention in the Lyon household starting next week! 

I have very mixed emotions about this.  On one hand, I know it promotes much better sleep for Shawn (and especially mommy and daddy) if everyone is asleep in thier OWN room.  But I love my night-time snuggles with Shawn, this is when he and I have our best conversations and he is at his most loving.  During the day time, he's all BOY and always on the go; there's no time for snuggling with mommy.  But at night, he's my little cuddle-bug.  So I'm struggling with missing that time with him and the fact that he's growing up.  But I know that we need to set clear boundaries. 

On the other hand, I also miss having more than a 6-inch wide piece of bed to sleep on.  I miss not waking up with a crick in my neck and I miss snuggle time with my husband. 

Now I'm going to share something that some of yoy may know but is not an easy thing to admit to a wide audience.  I feel very guilty about making Shawn sleep in his own bed.  I feel responsible for the fact that he sleeps in our bed in the first place.  When he was very little I was terified that something bad was going to happen to him so I held him ALL the time.  As a result, he would only sleep while being held which made for many nights sleeping in the recliner with a newborn.  We eventually graduated to sleeping while in the boppy in his own bed because it gave the same feeling of being held.  Then Christams 2008 Shawn got RSV and was running really high fevers so I let him sleep in our bed so I could keep an eye on him and take his temperature whenever I felt compelled to do so.  So, for over a year now Shawn has been in our bed.  Sometimes he starts off in his bed for a couple of hours but he ALWAYS  ends up in our bed.  And that's the history as to why Shawn sleeps in our bed in the first place and why I'm really struggling with moving him to his bed. 

So here is the behavior modification plan I developed (with help from Good Morning America):

1) We are going to really talk-up how much fun it is to sleep in your own bed in your own room.

2) We are going to establish, and stick to, a sleep routine that will include bath, pajamas, a cup of milk, a book and light's out.

3) For a week, we will have a "sleep party" in Shawn's room.  One of us will sleep on an air mattress next to Shawn's bed in Shawn's room for a week. 

4) If Shawn spends an entire night in his own bed, he will get to pick a treat out of the "treat bag" in the morning.  We stocked the "treat bag" last night while at Toys R Us with hot wheels cars/motorcycles/monster trucks, binoculars (Jacin thought they were cool), a Nemo book, and a Home Depot tool set.  Treats will only be awarded if Shawn stays in his bed ALL night and only one at a time.

5)  Mommy and Daddy will not deviate from the plan no matter how tired, frustrated, busy or interested in American Idol they are (easier said than done I'm guessing).

WARNING:  POTTY TRAINING TALK

I'm hoping the treat bag will also work for potty-training.  A treat for every pee and poop in the toilet?  Luckily, he is still easily entertained by 99 cent Hot Wheels cars because this could get very expensive!  Here's the potty-training dilema... Shawn does great peeing in the big boy potty and telling us when he needs to go, but not so much with poop.  He'll tell us he needs to go poop, we go sit on the toilet, but then he says, "Poop stuck" and gets off the toilet.  Less than five minutes after we put his pull-up and pants back on, he's pooped in the pull-up.  We've tried staying on the toilet longer until he poops but inevitably we give up and put the pull-up back on.  I haven't gotten brave enough to just let him run around in underwear, maybe if I did that he would rather poop in the toilet than underwear.  He does the same thing at school, pees in the toilet but refuses to poop in the toilet.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated! 

I will keep you updated on the Sleep Intervention.