Happy medium

After a couple of rough nights with Zoë and Alexander storming into our room every hour or so, I sat them down before putting them to bed last night and sternly told them that they had to stop doing that! 

It's normal to have periods of wakefulness during the night. And during those times you just say, "Self, it's still nighttime. Go back to sleep."

Do not fling Mom and Dad's bedroom door open and turn on all the lights. Just...don't. 

We also talked about how when they're put to bed they need to just be in bed until they fall asleep. 

If Zoë continues "needing" to go to the bathroom twenty times between 9:00 and 10:00, for example, I will be forced to make an appointment with the doctor to have her tested for Type 1 diabetes because having to pee that often is not normal. 

Remarkably, they stayed in their beds. 

"I don't know if they're just really tired from not sleeping themselves or if I scared them into submission," I remarked to Andrew as we were going to bed, "But I haven't seen a child all evening!"

And no one burst through our door all night, either. 

And no one came in to pounce on us in the morning. 

In fact, I was shocked when my alarm clock went off (time to check your blood sugar!) because I haven't been woken up by my alarm clock in...a long time (since I've been woken up before my alarm clock). 

I went to check on the kids and found Alexander wearing nothing but underwear and his pyjama top. 

"What happened to your pants?" I asked.

"Oh," he said proudly. "I didn't want to wake you so I just peed in my pants when I got up this morning! But don't worry—I changed out of them and cleaned up my spill. Did you have a nice sleep?"

"Yes," I said. "It was actually really nice, but...I also would have been happy to take you potty if you really needed to go! I'm always happy to help you go potty. I don't want you wetting your pants! It's when you come bother me for no reason that I wish you would just stay in your bed! Do you understand the difference?"

He does not.

But we'll figure out a happy medium, I'm sure.

We've been trying to convince him that he can take himself potty, but he largely thinks that idea is unrealistic. Take himself potty? Ludicrous! 

(At least he didn't pee his pants until after he got out of bed. Cuts down on laundry for sure!)