Hostage Situation

I have this feeling like everything to do with sleep learning with O, my two-year-old, I missed or did wrong. We had nothing to go on, no one we felt could help us, a tough sleeper and no capacity to listen to crying. 

But through it all, O has been reliable at letting us know when he's ready for the next step in sleeping. Whatever we used to do just stops working. This boy is still probably the worst sleeper in the universe, however. But we have gone on to the big boy bed. We chose this bed for a few reasons:

It's big enough for him to grow into. Also big enough for the precise cuddles A will be forced to deliver at various intervals. It's low to the floor so rolling off and hurting himself is less likely. 

Here's how it goes down:

We fight through the bedtime routine. "Time to brush your teeth, buddy!" "No brush!" "Come put on your pyjama pants!" "No pants!" Etc etc. It winds up being an hour or so of us doing every silly thing he demands and then stopping when he inevitably decides he no longer wants it less than a second later. "Blanket! No blanket" and "bye mama, sit mama" are common refrains at our house between 7-8 pm.  

For two years, the person O wanted at bedtime was me. Within the past month, O insists on laying with his daddy, but not too close, of course. I consider this a promotion even though I'm not allowed to leave the room. I do get to read my news feed on my phone while sitting in the rocking chair, though. Sometimes I get a high score playing Drop7.  

When I'm sure O is good and asleep, I wake up my husband and we sneak the hell out of there. We then hope he stays asleep for at least three hours before we have to go back in. 

Everyone learns to sleep eventually right!?!?!?!!!?!