Bad Mommy Gets it Right – Maybe

There are several alternate titles for this post. Among them,

• Taking the Easy Way Out
• It’s about Dang Time
• Whew, Dodged a Bullet There
• #1 Reason Grammy’s Rule

Your are now fully intrigued, no?

I may have mentioned before that Little Man is not a very good sleeper. He’s just not. If I think about it, he never has been. At the root of it all, I think is this simple fact … he doesn’t want to miss anything. Little Man is also an opportunist – as most 5-year-olds are.

If you combine those two elements with a new baby sister on  the way, you get … bad mommy!

Here’s how it works.

When I was in the last months of pregnancy with BK (a.k.a., Louie), I couldn’t easily get to the level of Little Man’s trundle bed to read to him. So, he got to read with me on our bed where, snuggled in, he often fell asleep – soundly asleep. Fast forward about 20 months and you find Little Man sleeping on the floor in our bedroom.

[You can gasp if you like. You might even want to "tsk" or shake your head. I'm OK with that too. You might want to nod knowingly. I've gotten it all. Little Man is not shy about flaunting this Bad Mommy behavior of mine!]

Although I know that he cannot sleep on our bedroom floor forever, I must tell you that he sleeps well there. He goes to bed when we ask him to and he sleeps through the night. This is not a phenomenon we experienced when he was in his own bed/room.

Oh, and if you ask him about it, you’ll get something like this.

I don’t sleep well. I need some of that stuff they show on TV for people who can’t sleep at night. But, I like my pallet here in “our” room. I’ll sleep in my bed when I’m 5 6.

If he’s feeling like he needs to impress you, he’ll tell you more (including a myriad of “logical” reasons why it’s necessary for him to sleep there) and you will laugh at the seriousness silliness seriousness of it all.

We’ve been working on this for what seems like forever and, frankly, we’ve just not been motivated enough to get him sleeping where he needs to be sleeping. We’re afraid that we won’t sleep and we’re just too old and wimpy to be going without sleep anymore. [There, I said it.]

Enter Grammy and our little Louie (BK).

The kids have gone to Grammy’s for their summer sabbatical. [We hope they want to come home.] When we set this all up, there was some discussion about where the kids would sleep because Gram doesn’t have a crib. Gram decided Louie could handle a toddler bed and made it so.

[My mother has this power, you know. She says things like, "He will be potty trained by Friday." And, he was. It's a little awe-inspiring and a tad overwhelming.]

Little Man decided that he and Louie should sleep in the same room at Grammy’s and made it so. It’s been a happy 3 weeks!

Bad Mommy heard about all of this happy sleeping and had an idea! A wonderful idea! A-ha!!!

We could move Louie to a toddler bed in her room and Little Man could sleep in the big kid bed in that room! Brilliant! They are of an age where sharing a room isn’t a big deal and he’d be OFF MY FLOOR!!!! Woot!

So, my mom asked Little Man what he thought of the plan. This is what she said he said.

I would like to share a room with Louie and help her feel safe in the toddler bed when we get home. I am her big brother and it would be a good idea for us to be in the same room. I would also like to make my bedroom a toy room so we could have another place to play.

Whew. Really? This might actually work. So, taking stock, here’s where we are.

• Brilliant plan hatched? Check
• Preschooler buy-in? Check
• Toddler bed acquired? Check
• Big bed readied for new tenant? Check

I’m now holding my breath for when they arrive home. Good news, though … my mother is staying for a week.

• Bad Mommy problem #97 solved? Maybe!