About a month and a half ago Sam started having sleep problems. I've always considered Sam to be a good sleeper (aside from infancy). ..consistent times, goes to sleep on his own, doesn't wake during the night, self-soother, etc. So, the month of sleep problems we just went through was quite a challenge for all involved. It started one night when, as he was falling asleep, he shot up and let out the most horrible scream. Clearly, something had frightened him. This went on for a few days before he was able to tell us he was scared of a computer in the his room...WHAT?!?!? I kept going through the days leading up to this first bad night, trying to figure out if he'd seen or heard something scary on the computer...no...nothing. Of course it only took a couple of these bad nights, and mommy and daddy running in to comfort him several times, for Sam to form some really bad habits. So after a few days, not only were we dealing with a scared toddler, but wondering if, at times, he was just trying to get us in his room. I think it was a little of both. It was terribly heartbreaking because there's only so much comforting and reassuring that we could do...the next step was to just put him in our bed. We worked through it though and with some help from all the sleep books I read through his infancy, and some steps back to "sleep training", we now have a good little sleeper again...actually even better than before.
All this was so bad that one of my friends even had me starting to think that perhaps there was something in his room...ghosts or spirits or something...she even had me thinking about "saging" the room...I don't even know what the heck that is, but she was about to get me interested!!! It was THAT bad!
We did finally figure out that the clock radio we used for white noise in his room (on static...no station) was picking up signals of some sort and making noises that were scaring Sam...the "computer" (or scanner) is what it sounded like to him. We now have a handy dandy little white noise machine. And while it was more expensive than the $10 clock radio we were using, it's worth it...it makes a nice little fan noise and no random scary noises. At one point I thought that perhaps he was just having night terrors and was overtired when going to sleep. Sam had recently gotten pretty flexible with his nap time and bed time and would be okay with going down 30 minutes to an hour late when we were out and busy. So, one of the changes we made was to get back to a VERY consistent/rigid sleep schedule. And the final thing we did, which I think was the most helpful in breaking the bad habits that were formed, is using a timer when we put Sam to sleep. He now gets to pick one person to put him to bed. We then set a timer for 3 minutes and he can talk to us, have us sing songs, scratch his back, tuck him in, etc., but when the timer goes off he gets one last hug and kiss and we leave and don't come back. This has worked amazingly well.
I am so glad to have this troublesome time behind us...it really DID feel like we had a baby in the house again. Maybe God was just getting us ready for #2 and reminding us what life it about to be like again.
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