Tonight's plan of attack

This week’s peaceful evenings of solitude aren’t quite coming to pass the way I’ve expected. No, they’re pretty much continuing to be a continuation of Sunday, where the child and the animals united in a cluster of sleep boycotting that lasted most of the night. Last night, my dad sat in the room with T until he fell asleep (aka, an HOUR AND A HALF past his 7:30 bedtime) so he wouldn’t continuously hop out of the crib and then cry that he couldn’t get back in it. Not an ideal situation, by far, but desperate times call for desperate measures. That this particular boycott was followed by both the dog and cats on a 2 hour rotating “on the prowl” schedule all night long (interspersed by toddler tears) isn’t the point of this post.

It’s that I have a plan.

I cracked Toddler 411 last night and read about toddler delay tactics. My child has apparently decided to start using some of these on me. Not cool, kiddo. Tonight, I fight back. Tonight, I will remove the toys from the room (though Toddler 411 does say it’s ok if they play if they get out of bed….). Tonight, I will leave an extra blanket on the floor by the door so that if T climbs out and lays down in that spot for the zillionth time this week with his fingers peeking out from under the door, hopefully he’ll take a moment to cuddle up to the blanket while he’s at it and sleep through the night. Tonight I will ignore the "mommy" cries and not go back in.

Oh, and tonight, I will pass the video monitor off to my parents, who sensing my zombie-like desperation, nicely offered to sleep over and take over the monitor duties. It might be easier for me not to go into his room if I can’t actually hear him…*

Wish me luck! 

Tonight, I'm attempting to take action on this page of the book.

*And I might not actually become a full-fledged crazy girl if I get more than 3 hours of sleep tonight.