I shouldn't brag about this yet,

but I want to shout from the roof-top that Caleb slept for 11 HOURS in his bed by HIMSELF last night! YAHOOOOOOO! And the night before, he slept for 6 hours by himself! This brings his sleeping-though-the-night total up to 9 times for his entire life. What's more important though is that he's putting HIMSELF to sleep! He's never done this before! I am hoping that he will continue this trend.

I am not sure if I have ever written about the "process" to get him to sleep at night. It's almost as exhausting as feeding him. And I think he views sleep the same as eating...he doesn't think he needs it either. We give him melatonin (a sleep aid) about 30 minutes before bedtime. We then read stories, give him the rest of his meds, and brush their teeth. Then Caleb finds the "stuff" he wants to sleep with that night. He always sleeps with a bear blanket, and then chooses other things as well (the last 2 nights it's been a Wii game case and some cars). Usually, both boys want me to put them to bed, but Isaac still wants to be rocked (for about 2 minutes and then wants to be in his crib). Caleb has no patience for this, so Joel takes him to bed in the meantime. We put on "white noise," he drinks his bottle, he plays with our thumbs, he tosses and turns, asks a million questions and ends up coming out of his room to get me to "take me ny-ny." Then he repeats the process with me (except he doesn't get another bottle). It usually takes 1-1.5 HOURS, and without melatonin it can take up to 3 hours for him to fall asleep. It doesn't make a difference what time we put him to bed. If we wait until 9:30, it still takes that long for him to wind down and fall asleep. Once he's asleep, we leave his room, but he always ends up waking up and coming into our bed at some point.

So this week, I was tired of always laying with him in order for him to fall asleep (we have to for naps too). We've tried to make him sleep by himself in the past, but he would scream and scream and throw up and end up waking Isaac up. We decided we needed one kid to have good sleep habits, so we kept doing what we've always done. On Friday, I decided that I'd try and make him sleep by himself for his nap. I put on a movie and told him that he needed to stay in his bed. I explained that Grady, Lauren, and Jack (kids in his class) sleep by themselves and now that he's in preschool he's a big boy and could do it too. Of course he freaked out when he realized I was serious about not sleeping with him, but I explained that I would leave his door open (he hates it when it's shut) if he would lay quietly and watch his movie. I had to go in and reassure him a few times, but to my surprise, he eventually fell asleep.

We did the same thing on Friday night; put on a movie and told him to stay in his bed. He kept asking, "You check on me?" He fell asleep, but it took him nearly 3 hours to do so. But, he stayed in his bed until 5 AM, which was great. Yesterday, he didn't fall asleep for his nap, but he did "rest" in his bed for 2 hours. Although, I think he did more playing with the "stuff" he brought to bed with him than actual resting. But, as long as he's playing quietly/resting by himself, I really don't care if he sleeps or not. I can tell that he still NEEDS to sleep though because he was a bear yesterday evening.

Last night, I put him to bed at 8:00 and he was sleeping by 8:15 and slept until 7 this AM....ALL BY HIMSELF!!! I can't remember the last time he slept until 7 AM (even when he's in our bed he's up by 5:30)! I could get used to them both "sleeping in," especially if they are in their own beds! (Isaac usually gets up around 8:30)

Today, he fell asleep for his nap within 20 minutes of being in his bed and has been sleeping for 2 hours now! It will be interesting to see how tonight goes. Wish us luck!

YEA CALEB!!!!