Bedtime Tango

Hm.   That title sounds potentially steamy, but let me assure you that the only thing getting steamed is my nerves.   Kenny is suddenly turning bedtime into a real battle.   He’s always (with a few exceptions here and there) been very good about going to bed and sleeping all night.   But the last few weeks, he’s been completely dependant on either Casey or me staying in his bed with him until he’s completely asleep…   Something that is starting to take well over an hour.   Last night I left him after twenty minutes and he stayed awake another hour and a half, calling, “Mama?   Mama?   Mama?” with barely a break.   Tonight I tried to put him down an hour earlier – thinking that maybe I was making his bedtime too late these days, and laid there an hour (ok – I fell asleep) and he’s STILL awake.   I finally told him that I would close his door if he got up or called me again… he hates having his door closed.

How have we fallen into such a pathetic habit???   I know that much of it has to do with the impending arrival of the baby.   But that’s all the more reason to get him back into the wonderful habit he used to have of just falling asleep all by himself after stories and prayers.   Bite the bullet, right?   Take a week (or hopefully less) and leave the room after the appropriate time and be firm about not going back in to lay down with him.   Or give him a “one up” – meaning that he can get up or call to us once, but after that we won’t respond.   But it’s that little boy voice that says so quietly and sweetly, “Mama, I need you here with me” that gets me every time.

*sigh*

In pregnancy news, today’s been a doozy.   I’ve had awful stomach cramping (but not contractions), dizziness and nausea all day.   I talked to the doctor and they advised that I rest all day and drink lots of water.   If only…

Kenny was actually pretty good about me needing to be quiet… we read lots of books, played with puzzles and games and he even scored three separate 1/2 hour TV shows spread through the day so that I could lay down.   At one point reading books, he suddenly wrapped his arms around my neck and kissed me on the cheek and said, “This is fun, Mama.”   We always read a ton of books – first thing in the morning, naptime and bedtime, but today we read at least an hour at one stretch in the afternoon.   I let him interrupt as much as he wanted to ask questions, and we talked about each picture and what the characters were doing.   We even made up some silly dialog to fit in between the lines.   It was fun.

It makes me  ponder once again how much things will change when the baby is born.   Will I ever have times like these with the second one?   Will Kenny and I have times like these much again?   I quess we’ll just have to wait and see…