I should start by saying that I put the gate in Kale's doorway just to see if it would work. I then left it there and when he found it...wow oh wow. He was trying to find a secluded place to dirty his diaper and couldn't get into his room. He could have gone into our room, but seemed too distraught over this thing that was in his doorway. He seemed to need consoling, but wants to be alone when doing his stinky business...so nothing was going to make him happy at that moment.
Kale actually started asking for bed at 6:45 but we managed to keep him up until 7:20. That is when I put him in his bed with his bottle, told him that mommy needed to go do some stuff and that I would be back to check on him. I turned on his friends (muscial birds that illuminate on the ceiling) and put the gate in the doorway. The gate got his attention. He raised up in his bed and looked over. I told him goodnight and reminded him that I would be back to check on him. As I turned to leave, I expected a "NO MOMMY!" or cry or something...and definitely did not expect to have a quiet retreat away from his door. Wow! Not one peep out of him. He drank his milk and started snoring. It took over an hour for me to actually say anything about the process out loud, for fear that I would somehow upend the magic of it all.
I expected to have a wailing little boy at his gate by 11:30pm. Ep made a comment about hoping that Kale didn't run into the gate and break a toe or mess up his face. Yes, he was serious. I have to admit, I worried about it too.
We didn't hear a peep until 1:30am. I sent Ep to check on him. Ep missed the memo about putting Kale back in his own bed. So, when Ep rounded the corner to Kale's room, he found him standing about six inches back from the gate with both arms stretched high. Ep picked him up and brought him to our bed. I got Kale some milk (about 4oz) and we all zonked out.
The next thing I knew, Ep was kissing me goodbye. A little bit later, Kale asked for more milk. I got him about 2oz. and we both zonked back out.
At 7:30am, I woke up. Kale slept until 8am.
Holy Sleep! Yea Sleep!
Two things to note:
- Between bedtime and 8am, Kale only got about 15oz of milk. That might seem like a lot, but most nights lately, he has been drinking about twice that (although we have been diluting the milk with water in the effort to make it less appealing).
- Because Kale didn't drink so much, we were able to make it through the night in one diaper and not wake up to a pee spot from a leaky diaper!
One step at a time. Brick by Brick. Here is to hoping tonight goes equally well or better. It ought to be interesting because tonight is the one night each week that I am not at home when Kale goes to bed...but Ep is very capable...its just a matter of whether Kale wants to cooperate.
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