Are we in trouble???

We are just glad he was trying to climb in and not climb out! He's been wanting to get in his crib lately and play. He's discovering his stuffed animals too. It's really cute when he wants to lie down and go "night, night" with one of them.

Ben's been sleeping miserably lately. He's never been the greatest sleeper, but last week was just awful. There was one night were I think I got an hour's worth of sleep because he was just up all night. Any kind of routine we had has been broken. He still (after 20 months) won't fall asleep by himself. I can't just put him in his crib and let him fall asleep. Never could - I can let him cry, but after an hour and a half or so, I'd say the mission has failed. He has never been a self soother either. Right now, he and I, and lately J.R., will get into bed, turn off the light, and wait til he falls asleep. It used to be that his bedtime was 9:15 PM. However, now I'm falling asleep with Ben because by the time he's asleep, it's anywhere between 10PM and midnight, although it's usually between 10PM to 11PM. J.R. will put Ben in his crib once we know he's good and asleep. But, he's still waking up in the middle of the night. It used to be just once, now, it's several times. Unfortunately, a bad habit that's been started is taking Ben back to bed with us in the middle of the night. With us, he'll sleep; to sooth him in his room, he just cries and cries.

Two things to add to this. First, we found out why he was COMPLETELY miserable last week. All four of Ben's eye teeth have come in. He has two daggers coming in from the top - and they really look painful. One of his bottom eye teeth has pretty much fully come in, and the other is just barely poking through - though it's been looking like that for about two weeks now. His sleep this week has been much better, although he's still going to bed after 10PM and waking up in the middle of the night. 99% of the time, it's J.R. that gets him, and he's doing a great job trying to sooth him in his crib, or in his room, rather than bringing him into our room. The cute little brat though, calms down and wants to play in his crib instead of going back to sleep (It's 4:12AM right now, and I can hear Ben playing and daddy reading to him). Now, J.R. is bringing him back to bed with us because instead of Ben screaming, he's happy and wide awake, but, he'll fall asleep with us. I don't know how he falls asleep for a nap in Daycare everyday. I think it's because he sees all the other kids going to sleep, so he does what they do (instead of falling asleep with us, he's falling asleep with them - maybe that's where his dependency lies??)

The other thing is this...letting him sleep with us WORKS FOR US. Now obviously, last week was heck, but the teeth explain a lot. Like I said, he doesn't go to sleep by himself, so we are OK with him falling asleep in bed with us. I love curling up with him. He's so cute to look at when he's asleep. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, he doesn't self sooth, but when he sleeps with us, but he stays asleep. We are OK with this. Really! I know there are lots of opinions out there, and a lot of down turned noses. Sure, we'd rather him go to sleep by himself at 8:00PM and sleep through the night. Until then, it works for us, we are OK with it, so we are going to do what we can to make sure we can all get the most sleep, and remain happy and healthy.