Sweet Slumber

Kyle has been an awesome sleeper since basically the day he was born. In fact, all three boys were sleeping through the night pretty early. I think Ian took the longest to sleep through consistently and I seem to remember he was about 4 months old, so still a LOT younger than many, many babies. It seems that Kyle, though, has an appetite for sleep like no other child I've ever met. Take for example his napping. He still takes 3 naps a day at nearly 11 months old. Yes, 3 naps. He goes down in the morning for about an hour and a half, then in the afternoon right after he eats his lunch for about 2 hours (sometimes it's close to 3) and then a quick 45 minute catnap right around dinner time. He's back in bed for the night at 7:30 and doesn't wake up again until 7 or later the following morning. Tonight his catnap began at 4PM and I heard him stirring just before 7PM. He slept right through all the rattling and banging the Bigs were creating, right through dinner, right through me vacuuming the staircase; he's a sleeper, I told you! So I went and got him; he was still groggy and snuggly. Just like I like it! I quickly fed him some dinner and then at 7:45 as I was getting the Bigs ready for bed, I threw Kyle's pyjamas on him with no intention of sticking him back in bed, more so he'd be ready for bed later, and he was sooo cranky and whiny that I ended up putting him back to bed anyway. And the kid fell asleep again! Normally I'd be worried one of the other boys would be up way earlier than normal with such a big nap right before bed but Kyle is such a sleeper I just know he'll be the last one to wake up in the morning. It's almost like when he plays too much during the day he just can't turn his brain off enough for his naps to get a good, restful sleep and ends up napping longer. What a kid, I tell ya!

Like I said, Ian has been our toughest nut to crack in the sleep department. He still sleeps and naps far better than a lot of kids his age and I think I'm the envy of a lot of my Mommy friends who have children who absolutely refuse to nap or still wake up multiple times during the night. After we got past Ian getting out of bed 20 times a night before falling asleep, it's been pretty smooth sailing. Until I got this book about monsters, that is. I bought a book last week called, "There's No Such Thing As Monsters". It's basically about a little bear who moves out of his big brother's room and into his own room. He's lonely and afraid without his big brother bear and sees monsters in the shapes and shadows in his new room. Big bear comes in a few times and eases little bear's fears and by the end of the story, little bear is snoring. Ian loves this book and has been asking for it to be read to him multiple times a day since the day it came home.

Last week Craig mentioned to me that Ian woke up around midnight one night and was calling for me from the top of the stairs. Craig was still awake so he came upstairs and cuddled with Ian a little. Ian told Craig he was afraid of the monsters in his room. A little history: our boys have never, ever, mentioned monsters. Shaun's never been afraid of anything in his closet or under his bed, like many kids are. We never talk about monsters because they've never been a problem. We closely sensor the small amounts of TV our boys watch and there's never anything even potentially scary in the shows so Craig was a little puzzled over where this whole fear of monsters was coming from, until I told him about the new book.

Then last night I was cleaning up some things upstairs before heading to bed myself and I heard Ian gasp in his sleep. Right after that he came stumbling out of his room looking for me, saying he'd had a bad dream about monsters. The poor little guy is afraid of monsters now from this book that's supposed to cure children's fears of exactly that! I feel awful!