night lights

For the first three years of Zachary's life he was a DREAM to put to bed at night. Especially in the first year this is probably one of the things that kept me sane. I could get his jammies on, give him his blanket and soother, give him a kiss, turn off the lights and walk out... done. finished. down for the count. NO DRAMA.

Fast forward to his 3rd birthday when his dada and I decide to take away his soother for sleeping as 3 years old it plenty old enough to self sooth and go to sleep. It's been aweful since then!

Last night I spent 50 minutes listening to the screeching, screaming, whining, crying and putting him back into his bed every time he snuck out of it (approx 60 times a minute!) which would then prompt another screaming fit. Oh. My. Gods. I hate bedtime. I LOATH bedtime for the fight that is inevitable.

At one point last night he mentioned that his room was scary. I tried to talk to him about it but he wasn't able to verbalize what was scaring him. He has one nightlight in his room (for the last 6-8 months I think). For Christmas he received an Elmo alarm clock which also has a nightlight. We have never used the nightlight but last night I decided to turn it on and see what happened....

Quiet. He INSTANTLY settled down, let me cover him, I gave him a kiss and left the room. I sat outside his room for about 5 minutes and hear him mumbling to himself... "nightlight...ya....nightlight....ya" every few minutes. He went to sleep. Quietly. AND he went back to his room in the middle of the night after coming in to see me briefly, we turned the light back on (I believe it is on a timer) and he went right back to sleep.

This better not be a fluke because I like it!
If he needs a light on in his room to sleep...so be it, as long as he is sleeping and as long as I am sleeping :)