Bedtime Woes

As a baby, Gavin went down with no fuss.  He was sleeping all night by 3 months and has always been a great sleeper (like change him into his pajamas and he would stay asleep if we were out late good). When we moved him to his toddler bed, we would read to him, say prayers, and kiss him goodnight without ever hearing a peep.  All of this somehow changed (maybe he sees the bad example his little brother is setting). Now, he gives us grief every night about going to bed and even more about taking naps on the weekends. 

With him being on summer vacation from school during July, we got pretty laxed on his sleeping rules- not making him take naps (which he does ok with most days and doesn't get too grumpy) and pushed his bed time back to 8 pm.  At night after baths, when we put Dylan down Gavin will ask us the dreaded question: "When Dylan goes to sleep go I watch one show?"  So being the great parents we are, we let him watch one of his 30 minute shows instead of reading books like we used to during that time. 

Now that school is back in session, we had to get his bedtime routines back to normal- so we told him his bedtime is 8:00 - and if he gets all of his bedtime routines done (including reading a book) before 8:00, he can watch TV until then.  Of course, even though he understands this and runs to check the time every night to point out to us that it is not 8:00 yet, when that dreaded hour rolls around he still throws a fit.  The temper tantrum is usually the result of an overtired child, who falls asleep within minutes of getting into bed, but these bedtime woes Gavin is giving us are starting to measure up to his younger counterpart in the room across the hall!

The lazy days of summer (I am referring to our lazy parenting here, not the child passed out on the Dog/Mom bed- see "It is funny now" post for explanation)

I forgot to mention that on some nights (many, many nights) Gavin will get out of bed and peek his head downstairs with a whole array of excuses why he needs us to come back up (I'm thirsty, I've got to go to the bathroom, You said you would come and check on me, etc...).  On this night, he must have got up and sat on the stairs without our knowing and when we came up several hours later to go to bed, this was our discovery.