More night time woes

Well, Matthew has been sleeping like a champ lately. One night early last week Matthew was having a hard time and since he's no longer getting any food at night it's been somewhat of a hard transition. He was crying and crying and crying and although we tried a pacifier, he would not be pacified. Jason, of course, had no problem sleeping through his cries and screams, but I had to get out the ear plugs. Since then, he's slept without waking or without needing anything more than a quick pacifier help for 12 hours. Wow.

Sam, however, keeps on coming up with new strategies to disturb our sleep and his. Although he is mostly staying in his room until his clock turns yellow, he is not going to bed very well. His bedtime is between 7:30 and 8 and after the bedtime routine we shut off the lights and leave, but Sam has been getting out of bed turning on his light and reading. Or running around and jumping inside his room. On Thursday night I left for volleyball a little after 8 and noticed his light was on. Jason checked on him and shut his light off. On Friday night we didn't hear anything from his room, but when I went to bed at 9, I saw that his light was on and went in to shut it off and he had fallen asleep with is light on. Last night he was having a lot of fun. Jason and I checked on him three times and every time he got up afterward and turned on his lights. He was definitely tired but the freedom he enjoys being out of his crib and recently, being tall enough to turn on his lights, overcame any tiredness.

Part of me just wants to leave him alone because at least he is staying in his room. But the other part of me knows that a tired Sam is a very crabby Sam and not one I enjoy being around all day the next day. So we are going to prevent him from turning on his light. We thought of a few options, one of which we were sure was our ticket to riches and fame. Jason thought of a plate thing to cover the switch that was accessible to parents, but not to little ones. Unfortunately (or fortunately) you can buy one on Amazon (which we will), but tonight I went with Duct tape. I told Sam before bed that he was not going to turn on his light tonight because I was going to tape it. He was okay with that and even pointed to the tape I had waiting for the task. It's been over an hour and we haven't heard Sam yet. Maybe now our night time woes will be abated. Until the next thing comes along...