Bedtime.

Brody has always been such a great sleeper. From the day we brought him home. I had to wake him for every feeding. At the 2 week appointment the doctor told me he was gaining enough weight and we could let him sleep, he slept for 6 hours! Madelyn was the same way. By the time I went back to work with both kids, I was able to sleep a full night. Up until last April, the only problem we had with Brody is that he was a light sleeper. Annoying, but doable. Then we introduced him to the Big Boy Bed. Oh how things changed. We used to be able to lay him in his crib and he would go to sleep. There were a few CIO (cry it out) nights, but not too many. Most of the time it was when he was too tired and we missed the opportunity to get him to go to sleep. Ever since April, it has been a nightly battle to get him to go to sleep. There are a few rare nights that he lays down and just goes to sleep. If he does that, he gets juice in the morning. Then we have some nights where we just go in once or twice. Earlier this week, we had 2 days that it has taken about 2 hours to get him to go to sleep. It's exhausting and is totally cutting into my new year's resolution of getting organized!
We try really hard to be consistent, but he is so strong-willed that it doesn't really matter what we do. We take his guys* away, but he could care less. The pediatrician suggested 2 things...1. Put a lock on the outside of the door, make sure he can't hurt himself in there and just leave him alone until he goes to sleep. 2. Put him and Maddy in the same room. I don't really feel comfortable with either. So I will continue to get frustrated until he grows out of this (I have hope that he will)! And, what makes it worse, he will go to bed so much easier for Heath than he will me.

Someone told me that 3 and a half is the magic number...I hope they are right! If that's true, we have 4 more months until we get our angel back!

*Brody's guys

notice the ornery smile...

Brody sleeps with Guy (a Dr. Suess character from The Foot Book), Mickey (Mouse), (Curious) George, Daisy (a Beanie Baby mini dachshund that looks like Julie's dog Daisy, which he has shortened to just "Dais" recently), Grinch, Eagle (a stuffed eagle from the zoo), Woody (Toy Story) and his pillow pet (who doesn't have a name yet). Every night we take inventory to make sure everyone is there. Most nights they sleep outside the gate that is situated a few feet outside Brody's door (I get nervous that he'll fall down the stairs in the middle of the night) because they get taken away almost every night. .