Sweet, Sweet Sleep

Since before Ian was born I have been worrying about how to get Simon to take his nap each day. For better or worse (better because I love to snuggle with my little guy, worse because it is often inconvenient) Simon has always needed someone to lay down in bed with him to go to sleep, whether for a nap or at night. Until today. After a great morning of playing next door, he was good and tired (as evidenced by the colossal fit that he threw for getting his coat on and all the way home). What has been working so far is to lure him upstairs with the prospect of helping to put Ian down for a nap in his crib, and then Simon and I casually wander into Simon’s room and lay down for his nap too. Today, though, Ian was having none of it, so I had to go collect him. I knew Simon was *this close* to sleeping, and I convinced him to lay down in his bed and look at his Bible book while I fed Ian in the chair. I figured worst case scenario would be that I would get Ian back to sleep and then come back to start the process over with Simon. No need. Within just a few minutes, Simon was asleep looking at his book. Hooray!

I am hoping that this is a good step toward getting Simon to sleep on his own. I am pretty certain that he won’t need someone to lay down with him in junior high, but some days I wonder. I almost don’t dare to dream about what new worlds that might open up for us—perhaps a babysitter that can put him to bed at night? Oh the possibilities! On the other hand, I don’t want to get too excited yet—if I’ve learned anything about my kid it’s that what works today might not work next week and almost certainly won’t work next month. In any case, though, I have two sweet sleeping boys right now and an hour or so to catch my breath.