Sleep Training Flashbacks! AGH!

Last night was NOT a good night. I had serious flashbacks to when Ryan was a baby and didn't sleep through the night -- would lay in bed and scream and cry for hours.

About 4-5 times a week, it's typical for Ryan to come in my room at some point during the night - he wants to lay down with me for 1 minute, then he wants a drink from the kitchen, sometimes goes potty, then back to bed. It's about a 5-minute routine, which isn't too bad honestly. I know some families whose children crawl in bed with them every single night, or won't go to sleep unless they're in the same bed, or won't go to sleep unless mom/dad lay with them until they fall asleep.

Bud and I have been very diligent in our sleep training, starting back with JD. We firmly believe that the kids should have a good bedtime routine and should sleep and stay in their own beds. Of course, when there are special circumstances (ie. sick or thunderstorm that wakes them up) when they can sleep with us. When I'm out of town for work, JD sleeps with Bud. But we make it very clear that it's a special situation and won't happen each night. They're ok with that.

Last night was different though. As usual, Ryan came in the room around 2:20am - I let him lay with me for a minute. While we were laying there, he said he needed to go potty, so I walked him to the bathroom. I should have known something was up when he didn't want to stop for a drink in the kitchen. After he went potty, he said he wanted to go back to my room and lay with me for a minute. I said "no, we already did that." And then it was on......he started crying and no matter what I said, he wasn't accepting "no" for an answer. I started getting angry because he would not go back to his bed. I finally carried him to his bed and by this time he is all-out wailing! I was afraid he was going to wake up JD, but instead he woke up Daddy. Bad idea! Of all people, Daddy doesn't like to be woken up in the middle of the night. So Bud came in Ryan's room and took over for me. (Thankfully.) He tried talking to Ryan, then commanded him to lay down in his bed and stop screaming, then gave him a few spankings. Nothing worked. After about 10 minutes, Bud finally had to walk out of the room.

We went back to bed, but couldn't sleep because Ryan kept crying/screaming. I finally got up and shut our bedroom door, hoping to block out some of the noise. It helped a little. The crying/screaming went on for almost 45 minutes! That's when I started praying that God would give Ryan some peace, that He would show his presence in Ryan's room so he would be comforted and could go back to sleep. I'm not kidding, almost instantly, Ryan got quiet. Thank you God!!!

As a side note, Ryan picked a really bad night to do this. I've been battling sinuses/allergies right now so I haven't been sleeping well anyway. I've also been really stressed at work, so alot is on my mind. I even had one of those 2am-sit-up-straight-in-bed-ah-ha moments last night where I realized I'd made a mistake on a file at work. I laid there trying to figure out how I was going to handle it. About 20 minutes later is when Ryan came in. Then by the time the entire ordeal was over, it was about 3:30. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep.