Sleep Incentive

Thank the Lord my son has been sleeping through the night for about a week! This is the longest he's ever gone, without waking up and constantly needing me for something. He's even known to pick up the monitor and talk directly into it, to call me if I don't hear him from down the hall.

It's getting me to the point that I feel desperate enough to verbally persuade him to sleep by making anything up to get him to sleep. The problem is: I am never one to manipulate or twist things around. I consider myself very honest. In fact, I cringe when my husband throws around the promise of "Santa" starting this time of year. It's not that I think letting a child believe in Santa is harmful. It's just that I think if you go too far in promoting this idea of Santa, that at some point when kids outgrow the idea and learn that it's a ruse...they will feel lied too. I don't want my son to think, "Well what else did they lie to me about?"

I grew up believing Santa...I think. I mean I knew there was a Santa, but don't remember when I stopped believing or how I found out. Maybe I was so traumatized that I blocked it out?

Well, I jumped on the Santa bandwagon seven days ago. If you've read previous posts, you'll know how much my son loves to play the drums. So my husband said one-day last week, "Hey! Maybe that's something Santa can bring you." Seeing my son's excitement was all I needed to know that we were going to have to buy a child's drum set for Christmas.

After three weeks of no sleep and such anxiety of the prospect of never getting sleep again, I finally broke. My son and I were doing our bedtime routine, and he said, "Mommy, please stay in here with me. I hate being alone."
I responded with, "Do you want to be a big boy?"
"Yes."
"Well, drum sets are for big boys, and Santa (cringe) won't bring you one if you don't start sleeping through the night."
"Okay mom, I'll really try."

I stayed with him, to sing his lullaby, and when he fell asleep...I tucked his covers and made my way to my own room. Well, that was seven nights ago....and he's slept ever since.

IN fact, tonight, feeling under the weather from a cold, I laid on the floor next to him while I sang his lullaby. I didn't want to get too close to give him germs. He popped out of bed, to rub my back...and started singing 'me' a lullaby. He's so sweet. I didn't want to ruin that sweet memory, so I waited till he was finished and asked him to get back in his bed. He said, "Oh don't you worry mommy! I'll sleep through the night!"

Hallelujah...I'm sleeping for the first time in five years! Thank you, LORD! A lot of you new readers have asked why I call myself 'wornoutwoman'....this is why. I never slept, worked full time, and still put in full-time mommy time. Now that I'm sleeping, I may change my moniker to notsowornoutwoman!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Yay!!! Hooray for sleep! Now what happens when Santa brings that drumset, I wonder? : )

(That was just too cute about him singing YOU a lullabye!)
Kimberly McKay said…
That took care of itself a few days ago. A friend of ours bought their son a new drumset, because he'd outgrown his little set. I told him...if you get one for Christmas, you'll still have to sleep through the night to make sure you can get new ones in the future. I hope by December his little body/brain will be so used to uninterrupted sleep, that it won't be an issue.
Tam said…
You are my hero! What a trooper you are! Yes, I agree, him singing YOU a lullaby is priceless. What a treasured moment!

Sleep sweet ;)
Sleeping Beauty said…
I also have the same feelings about Santa. Except, I remember when my parents told me there was no santa, and I felt like a complete "dumbass". LOL sorry for saying that, lol. I was thinking, how could you let me believe that??? I was only 8, I do not think that is too old to believe, but i wonder to myself, what is the right age to tell my children that there is no santa. I always new, as a child, "there really can not be a santa." but with my parents telling me there was, what was I suppose to believe? LOL.
Kimberly McKay said…
Exactly how I feel. I never want to mislead him in any way...but it's hard when your spouse believes differently. I'm trying to find a happy medium between the two.

And, it's okay to blurt out how you feel! I'm sure we all feel that way from time to time. LOL!
Anonymous said…
As a child, we were excited over Christmas and seeing Santa in the stores, taking pictures on his lap and so forth. However, being brought up in a Christian home and learning about Jesus, I didn't understand how there could be two beings that could give so freely. I asked my Mother about it and she told me that Santa Clause was just a story that began a long time ago and it made children very happy to think there actually was a Santa out there. However, she told me that if there was a Santa there couldn't be a Jesus so I was happy to just know Santa was an "okay" guy but our real gift giver was Jesus, who gave of Himself and makes it possible for us to have all we need in life to be happy.
I never thought of Santa in the same way after that but I was content to know I had Jesus who loved me and provided for me.
Rebecca said…
I'm so glad he's sleeping through the night for you! I haven't had to deal with the Santa questions yet but probably soon because Michael is getting older. I think I'll approach it similar to how my parents have done with my younger siblings. Teach my kids the history behind Santa but tell them that all of our gifts are really from Jesus and have that as more of the focus of the holiday. Though the santa photos and stockings are fun to do.
Kimberly McKay said…
Yes, this is certainly something I wished I'd thought of earlier. It's one of those 'small' things that you don't think you should discuss when you're thinking about having kids. You usually focus on the big stuff like...spank or no spanking. How do we handle our time outs as parents? How do we stay consistent with our discipline....yadadada. I didn't think to ask...How do we handle the Santa Claus angle? I should have, b/c now he totally believes there's a live Santa at the North Pole. I'm sure I can ease him into the truth during this year and next. I just hope he doesn't feel lied to.

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