Someone's Sleeping in My Bed

At Thanksgiving we bought a big boy bed for J and moved him upstairs with M & E. It took a few tries, but he was sleeping through the night in his own bed. Things were going great. J was in his own bed and going to sleep at a decent hour and P was finally sleeping through the night.

But in the last couple of weeks a new pattern has emerged. J returns in the middle of the night to sleep with mom and dad. The "good parent" would promptly return him to his own bed, despite any screaming or fusing that might occur regardless of whom it might wake up.

The sleep deprived parent (aka me) allows him to crawl in bed with her, just for tonight rather than risk the possibility of screaming that might wake the baby and therefore trigger further screaming.

So for about a week J has ended up in our bed. A couple times he has called from his bed until we retrieved him. A couple times he has arrived under his own steam, but has made sure we knew he was there. Once he even arrived with an escort in the form of Nan (whose room is upstairs).

But this morning I awoke thinking we'd had a good night. Everyone remained in their own beds and there was no breakthrough screaming or crying.

But there was something curled up at my back, stealing my covers and my space. J has developed a new technique -- stealth. How is a parent supposed to combat that?