definately better

Bedtime and nap time and all around behavior is definitely better with Parker these last 4 days. It was like a switch and he was fine going to bed with all my convincing efforts. The last time I fought, yelled, cried with him about not sleeping and made up the huge be brave for your puppy story, I ended up sleeping with him all night in his bed. I woke up at 5:50 am and crawled into my own bed to wait for the alarm to wake me up only to be followed by the screaming out of control 3 year old saying I waaaant you to sleeeeep in myyyy bed! And I did, for the next 20 minutes and then we went downstairs together, made coffee together, showered together, and snuggled on the couch all before 7 am! I was exhausted. But then we talked and talked and talked about staying in your own bed, not screaming and waking up the whole house. We did our whole routine and I kept telling him it was almost time to go in his bed. 5 more minutes, 3 more minutes, 1 more minute. Then I told him after I put him in his bed that I would be up in 5 minutes to check on him. And he waited patiently those 5 whole minutes. Then I said 10 minutes. He waited again for 10 minutes. Each time I checked on him, he knew it was okay and that I was coming back to check on him all night. Then the next 1o minutes passed, I went up there and he was sound asleep. I woke up the next morning to the naa, naa, naa of my alarm clock! Yeah, we did it! We gave him lots of praises and high fives and he was all smiles. I took him to Kmart to pick out a t-ball set to play with. I kept telling him it was for being such a big boy and staying in his bed. Then the next night (Friday) it was daddy's turn to get him to do it. I was working at The Spot. Daddy said it went just fine. When I got home at 12:30 am Parker had just woken up (maybe the garage door shutting) so I went up and told him I was home and would check on him every 10 minutes. It worked again! I couldn't believe it, are we home free? Yes, another night of sleep. Saturday night, same thing except tons of coughing from the boys and they were both tossing and turning, but sleeping...I hope I am not jinxing myself, but we seem to be over the hump. Just constant reassurance that we are there for him and "warnings" through out the day when the activity he is doing will be over soon. If I just give him the "10 more minutes and then we go upstairs" bit, he doesn't seem to backlash about not wanting to...