Sleep for Donuts

After 7 full months of sleeping with me, on me, in my bed, Jaemin slept all night in his own bed.  I refuse to let him cry this out.  It's not worth it.  With his acid reflux he has a lot of gagging issues and when he cries really hard he pukes.  And then with his reflux he's so used to swallowing that kind of gunk that he swallows it and I'd be afraid he's aspirate it and end up with it in his lungs like he used to.  Not worth it!

I at least want him to fall asleep in his own bed though.  I don't care as much that he comes in for comfort if he wakes in the night, but not to start out there or wait until I go to bed and then come in.  Literally, that's what it's come to.  We can put him down at 8 and he'll lie there quietly until I tip toe past to go to bed.  Then, it's a fight...at 10 or 11 at night.  I can't do it anymore.  I'm too tired for that.  He sleeps great when he's in my bed, but he's got to go to sleep in his. 

We've been bribing him with donuts for about a week now.  I bought his favorite little gem donuts on sale this week and he LOVES them.  So, I thought surely he would sleep in his bed for a donut in the morning.  All yesterday he was clapping for the donuts he would get this morning.  He would tell us he was going to sleep in 'my room'.  YAY!  Not mommy's room.  YAY!  But, by nightfall we asked him if he was going to sleep in his bed all night, in his room and he politely told Brian 'no thank you'.  It was the cutest thing, but we'd taken a huge leap backwards in the bed war.  So at bedtime, which is later on weekends, we put him to bed.  I'd cooked all day yesterday, for Easter since I don't have time this week, and was exhausted early.  So I decided to go ahead and sneak off to bed.  He'd been quiet for awhile, so I thought maybe he was sleeping.  Nope.  I get to my room and I could hear him running down the hall.  So we started the war at 9:30 and it ended about 11.  I won this time.  I put him in his bed and sat outside his room so that every time he got out of bed I could direct him back into bed.  I eventually went to bed as he was starting to get drowsy.  He followed after a bit, but after a couple of times of walking him back to his room I no longer had to get up.  I could just tell him he was not sleeping in my bed, he was sleeping in his bed and he needed to go back to his room.  He did this several times and was done for the night.  He really hardly even cried when I told him to go to his room.  I could hear the pouty 'huh huh' as he walked back, but that was it.

This morning I went to his bed and woke him up.  I told him how big he was and that he was going to get his donuts.  He was THRILLED to get up this morning.  He ate and ate and ate.  He's already saying he'll sleep in his bed tonight.  But, as we learned last night what we think in the morning is not necessarily what we're thinking at night when the time comes.  And before anyone thinks Brian didn't try to help in this, I asked him not to.  This has been my war with Jaemin.  It was always me he wanted.   It wasn't my bed.  I slept in his room two nights ago on his floor by his bed and he got up several times to lay on the floor with me.  He's a mommy snuggler that for sure.

My donut boy!