Sleeping prince

It's no secret that we have terrible sleep habits in our house.  Thankfully Isaac has always been a great sleeper because he had to be.  Before he was born, I was preparing to do everything in my power to have one child that would A) sleep through the night (after a certain age), and B) sleep in their own bed.  Because at two years old, Caleb was unable to do either.  I was so nervous that I'd be bouncing between the two boys all night long and get zero sleep. 

A few of my friends had followed and  recommended the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby.  I read the book before IZ was born and started following the "rules" of the book when we brought him home.  Of course when he was a newborn, he would get up to eat, but it wasn't too long before he was sleeping through the night!  Who knew a 4 month old baby could take 3 hours naps and sleep 12 hours at night IN A CRIB?!  At that point, Caleb didn't sleep in his own bed, didn't nap, and was still getting up every 2 hours at night!!  So Isaac definitely wins the rock star of sleep award!

But, this whole BMT "thing" has taken it's toll on Isaac's awesome sleep record.  He was so afraid that everyone was going to leave him that he'd get up in the middle of the night to make sure Joel was still home.  That led to him sleeping our bed, which he had never, ever done before.  When Caleb and I came home, we let Isaac continue to come in during the middle of the night for a while.  After a couple weeks, we decided it was time for him to stay in his bed.  It's been a struggle, but he's finally filled up his sticker chart and has mostly been staying in his bed all night! 

We have quite the ritual to get things "ready" for him to sleep.  Since a monster with red eyes lives under his bed, we have a lion that guards it so the monster cannot come out.

And since monsters HATE white lights, we have Christmas lights wrapped around the head and foot boards of his bed.

And every night he picks who he's going to sleep with, because you can never have to many friends!  (And yes, most of the time he sleeps with some sort of car or monster truck!)

I could sit and watch him sleep for hours!  It's hard to believe our baby will be four years old in 8 days!